DrBloodmoney Posted February 2, 2023 Author Share Posted February 2, 2023 6 hours ago, HelixNebula_x said: @DrBloodmoney a great bunch of write ups as usual my man! Cheers man! 6 hours ago, HelixNebula_x said: Just a quick one, is TLoU Part 2 not eligible for a ranking because of the title update? I know you only tend to rate S Ranks and I can see you have the plat but not the extra trophies. If this is eligible, I would love to see your write up for it! Keep up the good work! Aye - I will eventually get TLOUpII on there - I just need to get around to playing those DLC modes, but it will get done eventually.... ...he said, cavalierly ignoring the too rapid passage and finite nature of linear time... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Dubz Posted February 2, 2023 Share Posted February 2, 2023 Duuuuuuuuuuude... You Captain Ahabbed the shit out of Moby Tetris Dick!!! Very happy for you bud, that's quite the feat to celebrate! And such an eloquent write-up as per usual. I never get tired of reading these, just for the record!! Keep killing it out there Doc ? Might I just add, it is very fun having you as part of the UR Challenge this year!! I had a slow year last year, but I plan on cranking it up more so this year. Looking forward to more updates from you my dude, cheers! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taruta13 Posted February 2, 2023 Share Posted February 2, 2023 On 4/24/2021 at 1:42 PM, DrBloodmoney said: People yelling at me Seriously, if that were me I'd get my head checked, because I don't think anyone would like being yelled at. Then again, most content creators just get thick-skinned whenever they get flamed for their work. Don't worry, I'd never do anything like that to you. You're prettty solid! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted February 2, 2023 Share Posted February 2, 2023 13 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Yeah, I wonder with Phoenix Wright - part of me thinks it would be right up your alley - given our shared love of mysteries like The Forgotten City Oh no, he went and said THAT. Wishlist updated. Sigh? Quote Ha- I was bracing to get yelled at for not ranking it higher actually - I know Red Dead is one of those games a lot of folks cite as one of the GOATs - and it's definitely a beast of a game... I just think Rockstar's self-love is a little to strong to be completely nullified by any game... this one and Bully probably get the closest though! As an admitted Rockstar fanboy... this is wholly accurate. "Hey, do you wanna use little mini-drones to blow stuff up?" Uh... I mean not really, no... "Well too bad, there's a mission where you have to deal with the shitty mechanic, IT WILL NOT BE IGNORED!!" What?? Ah dammit, well okay I guess as long as it's the one mi- "Also if you wanna REALLY complete the game, there's like three more of those for you to do. HAH!" This is why so many people just blow each other up and call it a day. Facts on Bully man, it has an odd distinction of being widely loved and yet still feeling a touch underrated. Maybe I need to get on with Red Dead 2 so I can make a Rockstar tier list. Only thing I'd be missing would be Max Payne 3? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Devils Reaper Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 Good to see you're still going strong with this, doc! It's turned into a mecca of great recommendations for games! Huge congrats on Tetris Effect btw! Seriously impressive stuff ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted February 3, 2023 Author Share Posted February 3, 2023 38 minutes ago, The Devils Reaper said: Good to see you're still going strong with this, doc! It's turned into a mecca of great recommendations for games! Huge congrats on Tetris Effect btw! Seriously impressive stuff Hey, thanks man! - and good to see you around these parts again! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zvetiki Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 On 1.2.2023 at 11:35 PM, DrBloodmoney said: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy I see my request for scientific examination has been heeded. So let's see whether I have to Object! or will find the exposition cogent. Quote In terms of gameplay, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney games are curious beasts. They are, as said, primarily visual novels, but this is hybridised with some Adventure Game mechanics. Small objection here, although I realize I'm in the minority here. The Ace Attorney games are commonly classified as VNs, but that is a view that, I believe, diminishes the value of the classification. Lumping Phoenix Wright (or Danganronpa, or Zero Escape) into the same category as Code: Realize, Steins;Gate, Hakuoki or Our World Is Ended lessens the expressive value of the label "Visual Novel". Would a player who likes Muv-Luv find enjoyment in Root Double? Probably. Would a player who likes Deponia find enjoyment in Phoenix Wright? Probably. But crosswise? Less certain. To my mind, the Adventure mechanics of Phoenix Wright is the dominant part, and that there is much text to read merely a secondary aspect. But of course, I realize that this seems to be a minority opinion, with the game being considered a VN quite widely. Quote they have the feel of being much more interactive, and of the player having much more agency in the narrative, than they actually do. Indeed. The games does it mostly right by giving the player the feel of more control. It is sort of the opposite of Root Letter (Available for Scientific Ranking? Checking... No, sadly.), where the player is given the illusion of choice, but in reality has to examine places and interrogate people in a precisely predetermined way. I believe in the first case there were bad cases of scripted and unforseeable events; the player had investigated everywhere and talked to everyone, but the gameplay did not continue; so the solution was to revisit every place again and talk to everyone again until by chance some new plot hook appeared which set a flag for the game to continue. When I first played the game without any expectation, this put me off, but the later cases did not exhibit such mis-design. Quote That can be irksome, if the player is sure they do know what happened in the case, but is simply being stymied by the wording of the questions... Yes, this is correct. In fact, on occasion I found myself reduced to the last health point (or whatever you want to call it) in a trial and had to look up a solution (or save-and-reload) to carry on only to find that the required solution did not quite fit the presentation; and when I resort to a guide, that's always a bad sign for an Adventure game. Quote The characters might move on to the next case, but the events of the previous one remain in their memories - and in some of the best cases, actually factor into the storytelling of future ones... It also manages to maintain ongoing character dynamics, and long-form story arcs that weave throughout the individual "one-and-done" cases - and these work very well. Because the characters - both friends and antagonists - are all distinct, have particular personalities, eccentricities and foibles, and there is consistency of through-line across episodes, across games, and even across the series Agreed. Although some characters were more annoying than they probably were designed to be, the continuity is a great advantage of the series. Quote Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is easily the best way to experience what is a heck of an opening salvo from a really great, really fun, impressively memorable and genuinely well written franchise. Indeed. I find myself agreeing to most of your points. And I can only second the recommendation of the Great Ace Attornes Chronicles, it retains the charm and the good points of the trilogy, and combines it with technical and QoL advances. Good to see it has found a reasonably high spot in the rankings! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starcrunch061 Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 Gotta say - I love this thread. But (perhaps unwittingly), I have a perverse curiosity to play your "floor" game, LA Cops. While I'm not insane enough to review all of my games, The Caligula Effect makes a pretty good floor for me, and I'm honestly interested in whether LA Cops could "top" it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted February 3, 2023 Author Share Posted February 3, 2023 1 minute ago, starcrunch061 said: Gotta say - I love this thread. But (perhaps unwittingly), I have a perverse curiosity to play your "floor" game, LA Cops. While I'm not insane enough to review all of my games, The Caligula Effect makes a pretty good floor for me, and I'm honestly interested in whether LA Cops could "top" it. ? That is the danger with an absolutist list, isn’t it? - the bottom one, you’re not only saying “this is bad”… but almost “this is so bad y’all gotta see!” I don’t know The Caligula Effect… but I’d be shocked into submission if it was worse than that turd was though! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starcrunch061 Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 Just now, DrBloodmoney said: That is the danger with an absolutist list, isn’t it? - the bottom one, you’re not only saying “this is bad”… but almost “this is so bad y’all gotta see!” I don’t know The Caligula Effect… but I’d be shocked into submission if it was worse than that turd was though! Don't find it. Please. Don't find out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gruffiiti Posted February 3, 2023 Share Posted February 3, 2023 On 2023-01-24 at 10:31 AM, DrBloodmoney said: Norco Summary: *snip* Not sure how I missed this review until now. Contrary to @YaManSmevz though your reviews aren't affecting my backlog as I had already picked it up a few weeks back and am doing a fantastic job all on my own at making sure I will never be able to play/complete every game I have bought in this lifetime. It looks interesting and I needed an Orange colour game for the Kaleidoscope challenge. What your reviews are good at are pushing games to the top of the play next table as Im more excited to start this one up soon as I just have to experience it for myself. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted February 3, 2023 Author Share Posted February 3, 2023 Just now, gruffiiti said: Not sure how I missed this review until now. Contrary to @YaManSmevz though your reviews aren't affecting my backlog as I had already picked it up a few weeks back and am doing a fantastic job all on my own at making sure I will never be able to play/complete every game I have bought in this lifetime. It looks interesting and I needed an Orange colour game for the Kaleidoscope challenge. What your reviews are good at are pushing games to the top of the play next table as Im more excited to start this one up soon as I just have to experience it for myself. Hey - if I can sell someone on Norco, or even just elevate it through their backlog to nearer the top, I call that a victory! For me, for them, and for awesome games in general! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted February 22, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 22, 2023 !!SCIENCE UPDATE!! The next (somewhat) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be: Legacy Puyo Puyo Tetris New Golf Club Wasteland The Quarry Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) Hardspace: Shipbreaker Subject(s) in RED marked for PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT [Care of @grayhammmer ] Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Hitman 3, continue its glorious reign? Is gaming turdlet LA Cops ever going to lose the title of 'Least Awesome Game'? Let's find out, Science Chums! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Together_Comic Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Hitman 3, continue its glorious reign? Smart money is on an easy yes. 5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: The next (somewhat) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be: Legacy Puyo Puyo Tetris Curious about this one. I am intrigued by the Tetris, but IDK if I want any part of the Puyo Puyo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted February 22, 2023 Author Share Posted February 22, 2023 23 minutes ago, Together_Comic said: Smart money is on an easy yes. Well, I'll be doing a Mini-Science for the Freelancer mode soonish, and believe me - if Hitman was untouchable before, now, it has pretty much suit-only, silently assassinated all competition! 23 minutes ago, Together_Comic said: Curious about this one. I am intrigued by the Tetris, but IDK if I want any part of the Puyo Puyo. It's an interesting one - I won't prejudge the science, but I will say this: After going back and playing a little bit for the review... I may have immediately bought Puyo Puyo Tetris 2.... ? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: The Quarry Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) The wife is excited for The Quarry, given how it's just appeared on PS Plus Extra and she loved Until Dawn so will be interested to see how you rated that one! As for CoD, I've had that sat in my PS4 for way too long! lol It's in my next 5 big games to play. Wait, it'll probably be in the next ten. Make me get to it quicker Doc! lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long-Ryde Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 I saw you finished Golf Club Wasteland. I thought it was wild how within days of discovering that game myself, I happened to visit your profile from a forum post and saw you were playing it. I absolutely loved the soundtrack and atmosphere of that game. How did you happen to come across it? I was searching for golf games coming off of Hot Shots 1 and initially wasn't going to play it based on it being a 2D-trajectory type game but then I saw the platinum trophy had my name in it (in reference to the real Ryder Cup) and I knew I had to platinum it. It's not everyday you get that type of representation. ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted February 23, 2023 Author Share Posted February 23, 2023 (edited) 12 hours ago, Long-Ryde said: I saw you finished Golf Club Wasteland. I thought it was wild how within days of discovering that game myself, I happened to visit your profile from a forum post and saw you were playing it. I absolutely loved the soundtrack and atmosphere of that game. How did you happen to come across it? I was searching for golf games coming off of Hot Shots 1 and initially wasn't going to play it based on it being a 2D-trajectory type game but then I saw the platinum trophy had my name in it (in reference to the real Ryder Cup) and I knew I had to platinum it. It's not everyday you get that type of representation. That was one where I noticed it in the store while just casually browsing, then realised that I had actually heard a little about it back when it initially released (on phones, I think?) years ago, via the Giant Bombcast. That actually happens quite a lot - I'll hear about a game on a podcast or something, think it sounds interesting, then forget all about it... and ages later, I'll happen to stumble across it, and remember hearing some positive stuff ages ago, and just take a punt on the strength of that! Edited February 23, 2023 by DrBloodmoney 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted February 23, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 23, 2023 NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! Hello Science-George-Michaels and Science-Maybees, as promised (and in some cases requested), here are the latest results of our great scientific endeavour! Puyo Puyo Tetris Summary: An amalgam arcade puzzle game from SEGA's Sonic Team, Puyo Puyo Tetris mashes together two of the most recognisable and ubiquitous arcade puzzlers in videogames... ...Can you guess which two? I say ubiquitous, and rarely is that word more appropriate in videogames than with these two base games. The Arcade Puzzler is one of the most long-running, evergreen videogame genres. They have existed and persisted since the early single-screen days, and more than virtually any other genre, are immune both to the half-life entropy of technological advancement, and the whims of current vogue. The games do not change terribly substantially, as they are about as perennial as a game genre can be - and while some harnessing of more modern elements like better graphics, audio, particle effects etc. can be a welcome addition (see, of course, Lumines Remastered, or Tetris Effect) - those elements generally remain relatively inconsequential to the core appeal. As such, of course, Arcade puzzlers are also the genre that remains the most "gameplay static". It's tough to come up with new ones, as the core games are so fundamental, and as such, despite there being thousands of releases and variants of Arcade Puzzlers out there, really, they all essentially boil down to 6 fundamental game types:Tetris, Lumines, Puyo Puyo, Bejeweled, Kurushi and Puzzle Bobble. There are other games, but really, any arcade puzzler can be described in relation to those ones. Critter Crunch is a variant of Puyo Puyo. Cuboid is a variant of Kurushi. Dr. Mario and Dr.Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine are Puyo Puyo. Chime is a loose Tetris variant. Zuma is a loose Puzzle Bobble. Columns is Tetris.Metropolis: Lux Obscura is Bejeweled... ...etc. etc. etc. It's difficult to create a new game within the space, and developers clearly know it - settling, usually, for creating new games that are X% one and X% another... ...but rarely does a game come along that eschews any pretence at hiding that fact, and instead leans into it - bypassing the interpretation element, and simply saying "this game is both of these other games!" Puyo Puyo Tetris, however, clearly does. It's right there in the name... ...and while that might at first seem a lazy thing to do, what the final product ends up being is anything but lazy! Both Puyo Puyo, and Tetris, are very strong elemental forces. They are both excellent games in their own right - and while they do not seem immediately compatible, (and in truth, are not,) the developers have done a pretty great job in this game, of drawing from the strengths of both, leaning into the few similarities and even more into the significant differences in smart ways, and somehow managed to come up with a final game that actually feels more original and interesting than the majority of "original" arcade puzzlers that attempt to hide their influences behind glossy veneers or veiled curtains. The advantage Puyo Puyo Tetris has, is that, by wearing its influences on its sleeve, and by being so up front about them - to the extent that they are actually, (in Tetris's case, at least,) officially licensed, whole cloth - they are granted the freedom not to try and "amalgamate" the two incompatible games into some kind of lesser Franken-game, but rather to simply squeeze them together in interesting ways.Puyo Puyo and Tetris are oil and water - they don't have the same properties, and don't really mix well... ...but as any primary-school art teacher knows, that refusal to mix can still work to create some interesting effects when they are combined. The Puyo Puyo that exists in Puyo Puyo Tetris is not a "Tetris-ified" version of Puyo Puyo. It is just Puyo Puyo. The same is true of the Tetris. It is not a version of Tetris warped by "cross-breeding" with Puyo Puyo - it is simply Tetris. Yes, there are some game-specific intricacies thrown in to both - special blocks with special effects and whatnot - but there are outside elements introduced that cross-over into both distinct camps. They aren't taking elements from one into the other. The individual games retain their core strengths. They just happen to be doing so with the additional wrinkle of having another game happening either beside, on top of, underneath, or all around them. They are separate, but working together. Modes-wise, the game has a lot to offer. A 10-act "Adventure Mode" is the premier offering, and this forms the backbone of the game. In this mode, the player will find themselves playing Tetris or Puyo, or even occasionally both at once, depending on the whims of a narrative, sampling each type of game-cross-over that Puyo Puyo Tetris has to offer, while following a narrative story. That's right - a narrative. And boy oh boy, is it... something! That narrative is as batshit crazy and silly as one could possibly imagine. The whole game follows a really strange, silly, broadly manga story about the Puyo characters and a set of characters who are essentially Tetris pieces personified. It's truly bizarre, and not necessarily a personal highlight, (I am one of the folks there for the puzzling,)... ...though while I can't say I was particularly engaged with the story, I do appreciate the sheer level of moxie involved in both creating one, and having it so nicely animated, so lengthly, and just so damned silly! The actual puzzling in smooth and feels good, and the VS battles (playing against the CPU in the guise of various characters,) that form the mode are good training for the various modes of "Arcade" the game has to offer, as each is represented over the course of the 6-8 hour campaign. Those "Arcade" modes that serve as the buffet from which the Adventure Mode samples are the real meat of the game though. They are five-fold: In "Versus", each player simply pays either Puyo Puyo or Tetris, and follows the VS. rules of most incarnations of those base games - do well, (either pop good combos of Puyos in Puyo Puyo, or clear lines in Tetris,) and you send obstacles and garbage into the opponent's playfield, with the winner being the last one to fail. This mode allows the player to decide, however, whether to play Puyo Puyo or Tetris exclusively, and so it means a player more comfortable with Tetris can square off against a Puyo Puyo player, each playing their game of choice, undistracted by the other game. "Swap" sees players playing one board of Tetris and one of Puyo Puyo, swapping at set intervals. This requires players to both master both games, and to carefully manage their combo timing - as sending garbage to the the opponent is far more likely to result in a victory if all sent to the same game board, rather than splitting them between the two. "Big Bang" mode is one that is all about speed - each player plays both games, again, (as in Swap mode,) however, they begin with garbage in their playfields, and need to clear it as fast as possible. At the end of one minute, the amount of garbage left in each player's playfield does damage to that player, before the whole process begins again, and the last player left standing is the winner. "Party" mode works like "Versus" - except a variety of special items are present, and can be activated by doing well in either game - some of which will help you, and some will harm the opponent. This one is timed and score-based, with the winner the player with the highest score after a set match-time. Finally, "Fusion" mode is arguably the most cross-pollinated game mode - and the most unique. In that mode, both Puyo's and Tetrominos fall on the same board, and are subject to change at a moment's notice. Both rule-sets are broadly adhered to for their relative pieces, however, the two games sort of "push against" one another. Tetrominos can "shove" Puyo's into different positions as they fall, and certain Tetris moves are curtailed (there is no T-Spinning, etc, as the pieces lock in place immediately,) however, Puyo's will break Tetris builds, and require management to work both rule sets towards a victory. It's a frenetic, relatively complex game - one where "perfection" is not realistic, and simple management of problems becomes the real barrier to victory, but it does make for a really interesting game, introducing additional challenges on top of the regular ones associated with each individual game. As a whole game, the package pulls these modes together with some specific "tutorial" style modes for learning - a welcome addition, considering Puyo Puyo Tetris is a game appealing to two separate crowds, and most players are likely more skilled / familiar with one or the other - and does it with a lot of style. The game looks very nice - it's a cartoon-y, simple aesthetic, but one that really works for both games, and neither Tetris not Puyo Puyo appears favoured, either in the visual style, the menus, the narrative or the colour palate. The narrative characters (of which there are a surprising amount!) are distinct and endearingly animated, and the bright, colourful look combines well with the tongue-in-cheek tone and bouncy, (if at times, somewhat grating,) soundtrack. The overall effect is a pretty winning product. Puyo Puyo Tetris is not ever going to be in contention for the best example of either individual game that it combines - the serious Tetris player is not going to be practicing their Sprint Mode skills, or their Ultra Scores within Puyo Puyo Tetris, nor is the serious Puyo Puyo player likely to find their niche or perfect their combo game here... ...however, that is not - and was never intended to be - the point. Fun is the point - and on fun factor, Puyo Puyo Tetris hits the nail squarely on the head. There is no presence here of the more extreme ends of either game - but what there is, is an interesting experiment in cross-pollination, that works significantly better than one might have imagined, is presented very nicely, and makes for a fun, silly, goofy version of both games, without detaching wholly from the skillset each carries. It offers a ton of playtime, some great, interesting multiplayer modes, a decent-if-never-brutal challenge for players... and a very fun way for players of one game to sample the other! The Ranking: In terms of ranking, I am unashamedly of the Tetris-favouring subset of Puyo Puyo Tetris players. I don't have other Puyo Puyo games on the current ranking... but I do have a couple of Tetrises. That, however, isn't an enormous help. Puyo Puyo Tetris is easily more interesting, engaging and doing more fun things with the core Tetris game than the lacklustre offering EA put out with their basic "Tetris", however, Puyo Puyo Tetris is also not getting close to the amazing package and audio-visual spectacle of the best Tetris release: Tetris Effect. It's between those for sure... but that doesn't narrow the field much. Instead, I started looking at both other Arcade Puzzlers, and at other "interesting spins on old favourites." That raised two interesting games for comparison - the Puyo Puyo influenced Critter Crunch, and the decidedly odd, but quite winning Solitaire Conspiracy. The Solitaire Conspiracy does do some really cool things with Solitaire - arguably more so than Puyo Puyo Tetris does with either of it's games, and that concept is even more difficult, I think - however, Solitaire is, at it's core, fundamentally less engaging than either Tetris or Puyo Puyo. The Solitaire Conspiracy does a great job of making Solitaire seem modern and interesting, but it doesn't offer half the replay value or longevity of Puyo Puyo Tetris, nor does it have the multiplayer element, so it ranks lower. Critter Crunch is a great Arcade Puzzler - it is bright and cheerful, deceptively deep, and genuinely challenging in the single-player campaign. It is a great game, however, I do think Puyo Puyo Tetris does out-class it somewhat. Puyo Puyo Tetris is decidedly beefier in terms of both campaign and mode variants, and certainly has the multiplayer sown up too. While I might argue the single player "campaigns" of both, when pitted against one another in a vacuum, would be a fight Critter Crunch would win, (marginally,) Puyo Puyo Tetris just has more going for it overall, and has to rank higher. It's not a sweeping victory, however, so looking at the game just above Critter Crunch, it starts to get less applicable for 1-on-1 battles... ...but in a pure "is this more awesome than Puyo Puyo Tetris?" I think The Last Campfire, the original Ratchet and Clank, and even the excellent Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing get a tepid "no"... ...but despite some David-Cage-flavoured issues in writing, Detroit: Become Human does get the first "yes." Golf Club Wasteland Summary: A 2018 released iOS and Android game from Demagog Studios and ported to consoles in 2021, Golf Club Wasteland sees the player take the role of an initially unknown astronaut, landing on a decimated and post-apocalyptic Earth, having travelled from the remaining Earth colony on Mars, in order to do the only thing anyone in this world does on it now - play a round of golf in the ashes of the failed society. Over the course of 35 holes (levels,) the player plays what is essentially a 2D, stylised round of crazy-golf, (mini-golf, to my American cousins!) as the astronaut slowly makes his way across the destroyed Terran landscape, avoiding pools of radiation, broken sink-holes, decaying streets and irradiated, mutated wildlife, and bouncing his golf ball through such obstacles as over cranes, up buildings, through desolate shopping malls and broken nightclubs, onto abandoned yachts, beneath crumbling landmarks, and up disused elevator shafts, trying as he might to keep under the course par! As a game, Golf Club Wasteland is a particularly strange beast, as it is a game that deliberately - indeed, almost obstinately - jams together elements that should, at least on paper, clash. That's a risky thing to try - but it can also be a very winning one when done right. Marrying elements that aren't immediately or obviously compatible can be a recipe for disaster, but it can also be a shortcut and a fast path to genuine originality. Just ask the likes of Yoku's Island Express, which took two well-trodden genres (pinball, and platforming metroidvania,) but combined them in such a way that the final product felt far more original than the sum of its parts. In some places, Golf Club Wasteland's combinations of clashing elements don't quite work... but in a lot of places they do. The gameplay is curious, as it is pretty light and simple in terms of input, yet oddly tricky when playing at the more difficult end of the "modes". While Golf Club Wasteland is a golf game, the actual inputs are akin to something like Desert Golf, rather than a golfing sim. There is no club selection or anything of that nature - all shots are simply a matter of power and angle, and the level of fine control the player has is pretty slim. The indicator of shot direction and power is notably vague, and while there is a distinct difference in, for example, the roll or bounce on different surfaces, this is not something that can be determined by any UI or advice - it is simply a case of trial and error, and intuition based on the surface type. Its an odd one, as the gameplay is probably the area where the combination of elements doesn't quite work. The gameplay and design works very well for the kind of loose, un-punishing model that is present in the basic "Story Mode". That mode allows the player to take as many shots as is required - without penalty for going over par - and still see the game through to the end, and this is both the best initial mode, and really, the most appropriate avenue for what is a fairly spongey, relatively imprecise shot model. It does still somewhat work for the medium "Challenge Mode", though a little less well. In this mode, the player must complete each hole on or under par, and if they go over that shot count, must restart. This is still a fairly simply challenge, all told - while the shot model can be tricky to get perfect, the par requirements for holes are fairly loose (with some levels having par-scores of up to 20 shots,) and while the average player will likely fail a few of the trickier holes a few times, the punishment is not terribly onerous. Simply replaying one of the short holes in not a frustration - in fact, in many holes, restarting can be easier than trying to rescue the ball from difficult spots. Where the gameplay really doesn't gel well though, is in the "Iron Man Mode." This mode (required for the S-Rank) asks the player to not only complete every hole under par (which is not a huge task,) but also, to NEVER LOSE THE BALL - and that is extremely tricky... and the punishment for doing so is pretty ludicrous: It restarts the entire game. Because the game is tough to control with finesse, and because the difference between a perfect shot, and rolling past the "green" an into a hazard is such tiny increments, this mode is an absolute recipe for frustration. Staying under par is easy - but avoiding every obstacle the game has, in every one of 35 holes, first time, is an absurd challenge. It's one that I, (and, I strongly suspect, virtually everyone with the platinum trophy,) save-scummed. Doing so isn't difficult - the window for quitting out of the game, to restart at that level is pretty wide, however, this results in a rather irritating and irksome series of loading screens, as the player re-loads the game multiple times, and is totally antithetical to the "casual", sombre pace of the game that is set by the tone and visuals. Its a case where the challenge of the game clashes severely with the level of control the player has to master it, and the result is simply that the game ends up working against itself. The levels are not expressly difficult - indeed, having played the game most likely twice through before attempting Iron Man, the general tactics are going to be well known, however, the nature of the "loosey-goosey" control scheme is such that taking a fist "suck-it-and-see" shot, and adjusting from that is the primary method of improving... so asking the player to complete a mode where every shot must be perfect right off the bat is simply a misstep. In terms of stylings, there is real marrying of what should be clashing concepts too... though here, they are much, much more successful. The game is comedic in nature - at least in terms of the darkly comic concept of playing a frivolous round of golf in the destroyed wasteland of our society - but oddly, the actual tone of the game is not light at all. Actually, it is quite mournful and maudlin - to the extent of even being truly bleak and dark. Despite the cartoony visual style, and the bouncy, fun-times gameplay, the whole game is scored with a fantastically well produced and extremely good fake radio station - "Radio Nostalgia from Mars" - and it is this audio that provides both the first real moment of cognitive gaming dissonance, and the ongoing tonal elements of the game. Radio Nostalgia from Mars is great. It is both a talk and music station, hosted by the smooth, soporific stylings of a laid back, host, (clearly styled after Ira Glass, of This American Life fame,) and features an eclectic mix of genuinely good original songs, musings about the ecological calamity that befell Earth, the new life the colonists have on Mars, and well produced monologues from "survivors", recounting their final days on Earth. Anyone familiar with the This American Life Podcast knows exactly the tone of these sections - the parody / homage is pitch perfect - and because the nature of how the remaining humans live now, and the fact that, of course, only the richest of the rich - those arguably most responsible for the calamity - were the ones able to escape it, and carry that guilt alongside their nostalgia , it makes for an incredibly evocative, oddly emotional, (and even viscerally angry, or pointed,) reaction to this by the player... even as they try to hit a trick shot to bounce a ball off a balcony, and land on a dinghy in an irradiated river, before a seagull grabs it! The whole game is also intercut with very shot - often only one line - interstitials. which initially seem confusing, but over time, become more specific, and feed into something that the game initially seems not to have - a straight narrative. Several times throughout the game, as the astronaut moves through the different levels, a strange, albino child can be seen following him in the foreground, and as the game progresses it becomes apparent that there is more life left on Earth than the colonists think - and that these little musings are not from the astronaut's point of view, but rather, this mysterious child. It serves as loose tying material early on, offering a marginal little mystery to accompany the primary gameplay, but as the game heads into the final acts, this gets more screen time, and culminates upon completion of the final hole, in a fairly lengthly, motion-comic-accompanied narrative culmination, explaining both the child, and the nature of the player character. This section is pretty interesting, and does serve to tie the game together, however, this is arguably one of the areas where the game finally over-tips it's tonal balance, and gets a little too depressing and sad for what is still, at its gameplay core, a comedic, light game. Overall Golf Club Wasteland is a pretty winning gameplay formula, with more narrative and a much more cohesive and interesting tone than one might expect from such a game, and some really excellent attention to detail - particularly in the audio. The gameplay is simple and works, but it does suffer a little due to the lack of additional levels, given that the same 35 are sued for every mode, and the ability for that gameplay to support a challenge mode like Iron Man is highly suspect, and as such, that end of the game tends to simply descend into frustration. It's a shame, as the gameplay is genuinely fun, and the concept and execution good for 95% of what's on offer - but that Iron Man mode inclusion simply asks the player to deposit a cheque that the control scheme of the game cannot cash. The Ranking: Golf Club Wasteland is good game, but one that does have its share of faults, particularly around variety and a real disconnect between the level of control offered and the challenge built around it, which des tend to drag it south on the ranking. It's an unusual game for comparisons, but fundamentally, I think that more than anything else, it ends up being best categorised as a puzzle game - one with a good narrative, some clever puzzles, but a some rough implementation around the edges. That doesn't really narrow the field too much - there area lot of puzzle games on the list - including many that have different strengths and weaknesses - however, when it came to looking for a spot, interestingly, one presented itself almost immediately and felt right - right above interesting but relatively invariable and slimly fleshed out Cuboid, but below narratively ropey, but still quite interesting puzzle-design 3D puzzler, System of Souls. Golf Club Wasteland's strong tonal and audio elements, along with the pretty fun gameplay are enough to outdo Cuboid, even allowing for the silly inclusion of the Iron Man challenge... but there are just a few too many faults with it to outshine System of Souls, which while having a fair few of its own (particularly around narrative,) never really hampers itself too much by them. As such, Golf Club Wasteland finds its spot! The Quarry Summary: After the success of Until Dawn put Supermassive on the map, as arguably the first developer to really enter the extreme-visual-fidelity, motion-capture-dependent, cinematic modern Adventure Game space that had previously been dominated, (and, to give credit where it is due, immeasurably advanced by,) David Cage's Quantic Dream, they set about securing their standing as one of the pillars of that particular strain of gaming on Playstation. Some of that post Until Dawn work was more successful (both qualitatively, and commercially,) than others - however, their missteps (Hidden Agenda, for example,) were considerably outweighed by the successes, as they settled into a groove of offering shorter, themed versions of their cinematic experiences in the form of the Dark Pictures Anthology - a sort of loose collection of shorter games, released at a regular clip, and tied together by a common "host", in Rod Serling Twilight Zone fashion. The Dark Pictures are, almost inarguably, the perfect format for the likes of Supermassive as an ongoing concern. The somewhat episodic, smaller-than-a-full-length, but still larger-than-a-telltale-episode caters to their audience well, and allows experimentation, while retaining the safety net of an over-arching thematic blanket under which each little horror play sits, and allows them to do the kind of forward planning and schedule management that is required when dealing with productions involving working actors, while maintaining a revenue stream more stable and reliable than most developers could hope for. It has allowed Supermassive to, over the last few years, really carve out their niche. What they never really had though, due to the ongoing smaller games, was a big, splashy "second feature". If the Dark Pictures Anthology is the "Masters of Horror" style prestige TV show they parleyed their debut feature's success into, then The Quarry is really their first "film" since Until Dawn. Film is an analogy that will likely permeate this review - and with good reason. Supermassive games generally - and The Quarry specifically - are of a very specific type. Many games nowadays are "filmic", but most use the trappings of cinema as additions to a primary core of interactive gameplay. In Until Dawn, and in The Quarry though, those cinematic elements far, far outstrip any gameplay elements. The games are there to be "watched" primarily, and actively "played" secondarily. That is not to say they are not games - of course, they are, and player agency and choice in the story is a form of gameplay - but it is to say this: if a spectrum exists, with "videogame" on one end, and "movie" on the other - the difference between where The Quarry (with its extreme-fidelity-motion-capture) resides on that spectrum, where something like Late Shift, The Bunker, and other FMV games reside, and where something like Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch or other "interactive movies" have landed by approaching form the other end, is a matter of inches, not miles. It means that engagement with those products comes more from the point of view of what a player likes to watch, than what they like to play. More than any other type of videogame, The Quarry - and games like it - are reliant on player's filmic tastes. A person could easily be imagined who dislikes, say, Zombie movies, but enjoys Resident Evil games, as the gameplay is doing a lot of heavy lifting. With The Quarry, (as with Until Dawn,) though, that scenario is less realistic - it's virtually impossible to imagine a player who doesn't like teen-horror cinema, but does enjoy The Quarry, as it is so specifically and deliberately genre-dependent, and so specifically aping cinematic experiences. The personal "genre" tastes of the player are not filtered through a secondary layer of "gaming" taste. Even if a player really likes choose-your-own-adventure games, their personal filmic taste remains the overriding barrier to entry. That has its advantages. It taps into a pre-existing personal taste factor that is far less well tapped than most "straight-gaming" genres, and is therefor playing in a field that is less well filled out, and features less direct competition. However, there is a potential downside to this extreme shifting of the burden of engagement from "gameplay design" to the writers and actors. It raises the bar for those actors and writers. They are shouldering the weight of the game, and have to rise to that task. Here, I would argue - they do. The Quarry is, as a creature feature, and a teen-horror romp, not revolutionary outside of the extreme amount of variability - there is nothing in the basic narrative that hasn't been seen elsewhere in the film and TV world - however, all elements required to bear that burden do a pretty great job. The writing is required to do a complex thing - it has to keep the narrative as malleable as all the interactivity requires, yet still flow coherently as a "film", no matter what combination of choices are selected. That's a tricky task - many games have tried, and most tend to either solve the issue internally, by making most choices only "skin-deep" and have the narrative very quickly loop back to the same rough thread regardless of the choice, or simply by limiting the number of choices. Those that don't, and do retain the huge variety of choice, often end up feeling a little "stitched together" in the narrative. In The Quarry, the variability of the narrative is arguably greater than almost any similar game I have played - including Until Dawn - and while that "stitching" is apparent in places, it is generally only by seeing the game played in multiple variations, and in multiple ways, that it becomes obviously so. I appreciate this kind of game anyways - I give a certain latitude to narratives, allowing for some "roughness" in scene transitions, aware as I am of the complexity of crafting such a narrative... but I can confidently say that while my initial playthroughs did throw a few obvious "I can see the seams" moments - there were markedly, notably fewer in The Quarry than in any other game I've experienced of its ilk. Having played the game through many times in pursuit of the platinum, the game is both impressive in how variable it is, how interdependent and interconnected many of the "inflection points" are... and how well the writing papers over those inflection points pretty naturally. In fact, even the parts where the choices are "skin-deep" and where the game does quickly loop back to the same eventual outcome, the way this is handled is usually quite clever, and with enough elegance to mask it, until the player really deconstructs the scene over many different playthroughs. With those successes in mind, it is therefore doubly impressive that the game manages to layer more on top of the technical achievement - it adds style. Dialogue is genre-appropriate, and often genuinely funny - both where jokes are literal, and where they are seemingly not, and appear to be funny "by accident"... as these are usually knowing nods to genre tropes. Until Dawn had a few good jokes peppered throughout it, but in truth, it had as many misses as hits. The Quarry hits by a much more impressive rate, and rarely does a full scene go by without at least one pretty naturalistic moment of levity. That really goes a long way to keeping what is a relatively long game feeling like it is moving at a pace. The narrative of The Quarry is, of course, genre-fiction. It is firmly in the same "teen-horror", "creature-feature" genre - and that comes with certain baggage. The genre itself is a niche one in terms of personal tastes, and because these games are so filmic in nature, they lean into that "personal taste" element far more than most. Teen horror has elements that grate on some, and are loved by others. Characters who are archetypes. A particular brand of comedic snark. Specific characters who seem overtly dumb in high-stress situations, and some who are deliberately grating. A fairly loose, casual relationship to the realities of technology and law-enforcement, and with the "outside world". To be clear, all of these genre-staple elements are, in fact, represented very well in The Quarry - and that is good. It does mean though, that if a person simply doesn't like those films it apes - if they are not a fan of Friday the 13th, or Halloween, or The Haunting, or Nightmare on Elm Street... they are not going to find much here to cushion them. Happily, for my part, I very much am. The only real issue the game has narratively, does filter from that variability though - the ending. Because there are so many different possible outcomes, for so many different characters, and because, unlike something like Until Dawn, The Quarry resists the temptation to circle every choice back to a single "finale point" the ending can be a little anti-climactic. Depending on the paths chosen, it is possible for it to be more or less satisfying, but truth be told, even at its most "complete", the ending still tends to feel more like a list of individual outcomes than a single grande finale. This is perhaps the one area in which The Quarry doesn't live up to the bar set by Until Dawn. Until Dawn was far less malleable, but did at least have single, dramatic ending that tied the whole game together. That forced the rest of the game into a more rigid format - The Quarry rejects that rigidity, which is the more interesting path generally, but does it at the expense of its grande finale. A potential trap The Quarry's filmic focus could have laid for itself, is the reliance on actor's performances. In many games, the cast matters, but here they really matter. As with a film, a bad performance could kill decent writing stone dead. Happily cast here is, across the board, pretty good. The teens all work, and have a pretty good dynamic, and sense of individuality. Some have more to do than others, and some shine more than others, but at worst they do well with what little they have (Ariel Winter and Evan Evangora,) and at best, they really work (Halston Sage's Emma, Brenda Song's Kaitlyn, and Miles Robbins' Dylan.) Two teen characters in particular have to carry some much more heavy exposition than the rest - Skyler Gisondo and Siobhan Williams as Max and Laura, and they do particularly good work - and the cast of adults is filled out very well, with Ted Raimi playing the creepiest cop in the world, Lance Henriksen and Ethan Suplee supplying some "Redneck fucked-up family" factor, and David Arquette bringing his odd brand of squinting (and, of course, considerable Teen-Horror credentials,) to the mix. The biggest casting accolades have to go, however, to the two adult women on the cast. The Quarry requires not one, but two "creepy older-lady performances,"... and whoever in the casting office decided to approach both Lin Shaye and Grace Zabriskie, sure earned their paycheque. I don't know who the list of the best candidates in film to pull off an "Older scary lady" performance are... but any top 5 would have to include both. Lin Shaye has a relatively small part, but gives it her all as the matriarch of a cursed family, but Zabriskie has some serious screen time. She serves as the "host" of the game - returned to for creepy tarot readings after each chapter - and is the only character speaking directly to the player, filling the role that Peter Stormare did in Until Dawn - and she is simply perfect as such. There's not many actors I could imagine out-doing Stormare for creep value, but Zabriskie has spent a career proving she is one of them! The motion captured visuals of the game are of particular note here, of course. They are pretty amazing. Facial capture reached the point where actors were recognisable as themselves within games quite a long time ago, and have only been improving, but in the last few years, games have stepped past that initial barrier of "impressive", and entered a new level. Now, motion capture is at the level where not only are actors recognisable, but their performances - and therefore, the engagement factor that the game itself relies on - is primarily governed not by the animations within the game made by effects artists and computer modellers, but by the actors themselves. So accurate is the recreation of their performances, and the fidelity of the facial capture of minute expressions etc. that the acting performances are as critical to the games, as they would be to a film. There are still moments of uncanny valley, or where the gamified elements of the art design does detract from or affect that performance - the occasional glassy-eyed, too-distant stare, or the odd moment where hair or teeth don't look exactly perfect, (or in this particular case, when water is involved,) - but The Quarry is the first instance I have seen harness this technology effectively enough that these moments are the exception, rather than the rule. They stand out, specifically because they are pretty rare. Far more so than in previous "photo-real" motion capture games, the effect is that scenes without player-governed movement or exploration simply DO feel like watch film - and that brings both good elements, and bad. Some characters do seem slightly better captured / rendered than others, but this is evident only by the extreme high quality of some, in relation to others. The high points are so exceptional in their verisimilitude, that they can contrast with other elements that are "merely" substantially better than any game of this style to come before. One chapter in particular - Chapter 7, in which several character are engaged in what is essentially a 3-part play in a jail-cell. There is little player interaction aside from dialogue choices for a good 40-minute chunk of the game at this point - which would, would likely, in previous cases of this style of game, have been a nadir. Here, it becomes a genuine highlight. The whole chapter is so exceptionally well rendered, and the characters so highly detailed and naturalistic - and in combination with well written dialogue, often eliciting genuine (deliberate,) chuckles - that I would argue it represents arguably the most applicable and appropriate section of any game to demonstrate the potential for these games to the normally gaming-averse. I played the game the first time with my wife, taking turns controlling different characters, (via the robust co-op implementation,) and in this section, it almost felt jarring to need to take control of the characters when called to control their movement. The game had drawn us in on the level a film does - we had become comfortable simply watching it... beginning to forget it was, in fact, a game! The game does some nice visual stuff around the edges too. There are collectibles in the form of evidence collected and things found by characters flesh out the world well, without over-tipping the story, and a smart little "additional info" style add on to the text descriptions allows multiple items pointing to similar evidence to reveal more about each-other as they are collected. There are also a more "4th wall breaking" collectible in the form of tarot cards - these are found by the player, rather than the characters themselves, and at the end of each chapter, are presented to the "host" - Zabriskie - who can reveal snippets of possible outcomes of future choices based on them. These are not always terribly useful - without the context, they really are simply snippets - but the effect works in terms of divorcing the player slightly from the characters, and feeding the tone of the game. Elements like the "choice trees", (the visual representations of key story threads, which can be reviewed within the game,) are relatively standard in these kind of games now, but are given nice additional artistic flourishes in the form of each being "themed" and featuring it's own fake movie VHS, complete with cover, leaning into the "creature feature" horror vibe, and confirming the tone the game itself is aiming for. In fact, every part of the menus and UI elements of the game are nicely produced, and given a level of care and attention that is laudable - and deepens that tone-setting. Audio is very good here too. The vocal performances are good, of course - it could hardly be otherwise, given that the actual performances are - and the use of music and score is well done, and genre appropriate. There are some licensed songs, and while occasionally a little on-the-nose, these are generally pretty fun. Foley is an odd one to judge - given that most of it is diagetic to filmic scenes, and not as interactive as in most games, however, it is good - and where it is interactive - for example, footfalls when exploring, or stings working as jump scares, they serve the game well. I will note, the Platinum journey does require a lot of playthroughs - and this does make it The Quarry a rough game for "powering through"... though the fluid way in which the story dynamics play - changing based on multiple choices at multiple points, with few obvious "this-or-that" choices immediately evident - does mean that, despite some open possibility of repetition-exhaustion, there is genuine fun and value in seeing the ways the narrative can be manipulated. Towards the end of an S-Rank journey, the game becomes less like ticking off an "event list," (as can happen in some similar games - David Cage's offering, for example -) but rather, a puzzle. The player is trying to deconstruct a much more elaborate and interweaving narrative, to confirm which elements were the real catalyst for future ones, and which change based on what set-ups. Overall, The Quarry is a game that is arguably review-proof in one sense: it is entirely reliant on personal affection for the genre it plays in, but that should really be seen as a compliment. Most games of this nature require the writing and performance to be high quality, and the gamified elements to simply not interfere with that, or drag it down. In this case, those elements are good, and elevate the overall product. For those who dislike that genre, no amount of high-quality, well done genre aping, nor any amount of impressive visuals, technical writing or dialogue adeptness will likely turn the tide... ...but for those who do have affection for the genre, those elements are all impressive here - more so than virtually all previous examples of the technology - and it makes for a great time. is far from the best horror film, and it is not something actively reaching for the crown of gaming... ...but within that small, specialised pool of media that split the difference between the two, I don't think there has been a better example, for my money. The Ranking: The obvious comparison points for any Supermassive game are, of course, the other Supermassive games on the list (Until Dawn/ Hidden Agenda,) and the Quantic Dream games, which ostensibly operate in the same rarified genre, albeit without the horror trappings, (Heavy Rain/ Beyond Two Souls / Detroit: Become Human.) Happily though, I think The Quarry comfortably beats out even the highest currently ranked of those games: Detroit: Become Human. While every element of the story itself may not be superior to every part of Detroit's story, (Detroit does have significant high points too,) the overall effect is better in The Quarry. Neither story is particularly original - Detroit is playing with pretty well-worn Sci-Fi elements, and The Quarry is a teen slasher / creature-feature, and is steeped in those elements (and cliches) - however, The Quarry does it's homages far more knowingly and cleverly, and because of the genre, is able to do it with a slight wink and nod. Where it pays tribute to genre staples, it never feels tired, it simply feels well done - and never falls into the trap of feeling like it takes itself too seriously. The dialogue is significantly better written in The Quarry, and in addition, the game feels a lot less mechanical in its construction than Detroit does. The "seams" between choices feel much more fluid... because they, in fact, are - and that goes a long way to alleviating "repetition fatigue" when playing multiple times. In Detroit, as soon as the final trophy popped, I quit the game. In The Quarry, despite more overall playthroughs, I still finished up the final playthrough, just to see the ending differences. That means a lot in a game of this nature. Above Detroit then, looking at narrative / choice-based games, there are a few. Both Telltale's The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead are there, and in both cases, while those games are very good, The Quarry outmatches them by brute force. Both those games suffer for the technical drawbacks of the Telltale engine, and neither looks anywhere near as good as The Quarry does. In addition, dialogue in The Quarry feels higher quality, and again, the more fluid choice-based elements are a boon. Add in all the co-op options and the general presentation of The Quarry, and that seals the deal firmly. (Beating out Telltale's The Walking Dead also jumps The Quarry past the lowest ranked Life is Strange game - Life is Strange 2. While Life is Strange 2 is a story I enjoyed, I do think the fun of The Quarry, and it's robustness and audio-visual elements justify that too.) There's not much comparable immediately above though, and as we move above The Walking Dead, I think the general quality of games starts to make the fights closer and closer. Working up one by one, and just considering the games as complete packages, and taking general awesomeness into account, The Quarry's more limited gameplay starts to become a difficulty, and in the end, the last game I'm comfortable seeing it beat out is the cool-but-occasionally irksome and/or janky inFamous. The game directly above - Superliminal - is a personal favourite in a preferred genre, and I do think has just a little too much raw originality for The Quarry to beat it out... ...and so The Quarry finds its spot! Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) ☢️☢️Scientific Note☢️☢️ I am not a player of Multiplayer Call of Duty (anymore,) and did not touch the competitive multiplayer Mode in this game. This review is based solely on the elements of the game that I did play - the Campaign, and the Spec Ops mode. Summary: The 16th(!) Mainline entry in the Call of Duty franchise, and a reboot of arguably its most iconic (and certainly most ground-breaking) sub-series, Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare(2019) reprises and re-contextualises one of the most famous and iconic characters from the series - Captain Price - as he, British SAS Sergeant Gaz, and CIA operative Alex, are embroiled in the shady machinations of a rising conflict between Russia and the (fictional) Urzikstan. Western support of Urzikstan is strictly off-book and unofficial, but when the theft of an extremely dangerous, (and war-crime inducing,) cache of chemical weapons from a Russian storage facility pours gas (pun unintentional, but acknowledged!) on the fire of the Russian-Urzik conflict, raising tensions between Russia and the west, as well as between the Urzik nationalist groups. Various black-ops avenues of off-book Urzik support are sent into high alert, resulting in a slick, cross-country game of whodunnit cat-and-mouse. The narrative is a slick, tight action-espionage-thriller. Despite the warfare angles that the Call of Duty name carries, realistically, the narrative of the Modern Warfare games specifically has far more in common with espionage thrillers like the Bourne films, than with the true "war films" that the more traditional WWII COD games took licence from. The story that the game tells is more of an action thriller set during war, than a game specifically about those conflicts, and while certainly not revelatory or particularly original in that genre, this one does at least stand up alongside the kind of Tom Clancy / Robert Ludlum type fare it apes. That style of storytelling has positives and negatives in a game context. On the plus side, the game retains the kind of "simplicity within complexity" that the genre revels in. While the overall narrative is often relatively complicated, with lip service paid to broad, geo-political background aspects, continually shifting alliances and allegiances, and technical elements, these tend to be played for flavour more than anything else. The actual moment-to-moment elements of the story are always pretty clear cut, well explained and simple. The player might not always have a complete understanding of the broader narrative machinations at all times, but they can generally rely on the game giving them clear objectives and clear specific motivations within each scene (or level,) and so the narrative arc can work regardless of whether they lose the broader threads. The player can always be confident that the game will keep them right, and allow them to parse the macro narrative as they progress. On the downside however, because the nature of games means the narrative is crafted by committee, and lacks the singular point of view and clarity of vision of a single author, the actual politics of the story can tend to be muddled, and feel less focussed - and in a genre that uses realistic (and often fairly "hot-button") subject matter - that can be an issue. When reading, say, a Jack Ryan novel, Clancy's political views and political outlook are generally pretty clear and focussed. The reader might not agree with them, but they are at least coherent and clear within that fiction. With a game as popular as Call of Duty is, however, there often feels like there are conflicting ideologies at play within the game narrative. In Modern Warfare, the technical aspects of warfare are very good, and the game's technical credentials solid, but the specific point of view of the game on these concepts does tend to feel muddled. At some points, the game clearly tries to espouse a "the world needs protecting, whatever the cost" mentality - siding with the black-ops, war-crime adjacent, rules-are-made-to-be-broken viewpoint of many of the principle characters. However, at other points, there is a clear attempt to undercut that and cater to a more left-leaning sensibility, by leaning more into a "the good guys are as bad as the bad guys" viewpoint, where the actions of the player are deliberately made no different than those of the antagonists... and where the characters themselves are conflicted as a result. These two elements can be made to work together well in some fiction, but in Modern Warfare, it never really gets there, as the individual scenes seem to swing too quickly from one to the other. Individual character arcs are interesting enough for some of the primary characters - in particular, Price himself, and Farrah Karim, an Urzik rebel leader played by Claudia Domit - but the game itself tends to feel a little wishy-washy in what it actually wants to say about the subject matter it tackles. Gameplay is where Call of Duty always shines brightest, and in Modern Warfare, that remains the case. In terms of Single Player Campaign, the game is pretty much a resounding success. The gameplay is simple - certainly there is little in the way of player choice of variety of play-style within individual levels - but the location-hopping, varied level design does keep the simplistic cover-shooting gameplay feeling fresh across the 5-6 hour campaign. There is a good mix between contained, tactical fire-fights, stealth levels and all-out conflict sections, and all work pretty well. The Stealth sections and more contained action set-pieces are arguably the strongest parts - the Clean House level is a highlight, as is an excellent series of escalating fire-fights involving the extraction of an enemy combatant to and from an Embassy. A great stealth-focussed level late in the game involving a more free-form hunt around a residential compound at night has a great balance between stealth and combat, feeling tense, but with a loose enough stealth model not to feel oppressive. The more "open-warfare" sections do certainly feel frenetic and exciting, but tend to have the same issues most war-games do in these sections: the openness and higher body-count tend to make the game feel more "gamey" and the aspects that make it a game show more, (infinite spawning enemies, or checkpoint determination of enemy counts etc,) resulting in a loss of the realism as compared to the other styles of level. Multiplayer still exists in the game - of course (what Call of Duty would ever lose it?) - however, I am not a big player of online competitive MP these days, and did not sample it. The feel of gunplay, the audio and visuals and the smooth, 60fps movement are all present, and so I have no doubt that those translate well to the MP environment, and the featuring of Call of Duty's Warzone (Activision's answer to the Fortnite / PUBG / Apex Legends style 1 vs. 100) makes for a very robust offering for the Multiplayer gamer. What I did play, however, was the new version of co-operative MP: The new Spec Ops... ...and this is a bit of a whiff, unfortunately. Spec Ops mode in the original Modern Warfare games was, as I recall, a two-player focussed mode, involving short, tight objective-based missions played with a partner, and resulting in a star-rating. They felt wholly different to the competitive MP, and felt, in fact, much closer in alignment to the Single Player Campaigns. Spec Ops in Modern Warfare (2019), however, is different. These are longer, multi-objective based missions, requiring 4 players, and being much more open and long-form, feel much closer in nature to the competitive MP. Unlocks, levelling and persistent XP add to this, and the result is a mode that feels like a robust addition to the MP arsenal, but not necessarily a change I enjoyed, or think works as well. Because the Spec Ops missions require 4 players, (and cannot even be started without a full squad,) and because the players can level based on actions taken within these missions (kills etc.) there is a tendency for players to need to play with random people online... ...and because many of those people will be more interested in their personal levelling than in completing the objectives of the specific Op, there can be a rather disheartening situation, where a player is trying to complete the objectives, (which are difficult, and often require co-ordination by players,) with people who are not even attempting to do the same. Visually, the game is really quite something. There is an inherent issue with military shooters, or gritty, realistic games like Modern Warfare - because they are aiming for straight "realism" in their visual design, they can sometimes end up feeling a little more pedestrian than they actually are, because there isn't any grand, "wow-ing" artistic design or conceptual visual palate to draw the eye, and add that flair and "videogame spectacle". There can be something of a "these things look like the things they look like" element, where no matter how well rendered a building, or a gun, or a vehicle is, it is inherently less "impressive" because it is aiming to look simply like that thing looks in real life. What is most impressive with Modern Warfare though, is that it looks so good, that it manages to circumvent that softening of spectacle. It's one thing for a game like Rollerdrome to wow with its amazing visual signature style, or for a game like God of War to have moments of visual climax by showing the player things they have never seen before. It's quite another to manage to have "wow" moments, when the thing being rendered is a realistic thing, rendered in a realistic style... but is shocking simply because it looks so realistic. The whole game looks really fantastic, with a breadth of environments and attention to detail befitting the enormous budget of these games. Call of Duty has always maintained impressive technical credentials as it shifts with the times, however, there are certain moments in this iteration where I found myself genuinely awestruck, simply by how very real it looked. One mission in particular - Clean House - sees the team infiltrate a townhouse in England, making use of night-vision during arts of the close-quarters storming, and these sections are so richly detailed, so well rendered, and make such careful use of lighting and effects, that the gameplay begins to take on the guise of film... or more realistically, newsreel footage. Cut scenes look good - the motion capture of actors and the performances are not on the level of something like The Quarry, but actors are recognisable, and the strengths of the performances do shine through. Audio is good too - while I don't think the score is doing much to elevate the game, it isn't detracting from it... ...but where audio really does add to the game is in foley work. Gunfire, explosions, the chaos of conflict and war sound visceral and realistic - and really add a lot to the overall feeling of immersion. Vocal work is good too - the performances are, in fact, pretty good across the board - and while the script itself is certainly nothing to write home about, pitching itself (deliberately,) in the Jerry Bruckheimer, slightly cheese-ball action genre in which these games live, the actors go a long way to selling the gravitas and seriousness of the narrative within its own internal fiction. One thing that I don't often mention, but feel like I almost have to here, given just how much of a detriment it is - is the UI and menus in the game.In most videogames, complaints about the quality or the menus would feel like a pointless nit-pick - and in 99% of cases, it would be - however, I cannot even begin to describe just how obtuse, labyrinthine, byzantine and convoluted the process to actually get to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) was. Never have I come so close to deleting a game before I even managed to get started. The game is sectioned into discrete parts, each of which offers a separate download. Presumably this was done to allow people (like myself,) who have no interest in one section of the game to bypass downloading it entirely (in my case, the competitive MP,) however, it simply doesn't work. Not only was I unable to play the Campaign until after downloading all elements of the game, but each element also seemed to have multiple additional downloads required from within the game menu, before it could run correctly. The result is a game that - for me, at least - is a 4-5 hour campaign and a few Spec ops missions for a PS4 game, that took up the hard-disc footprint of several full PS5 games! This obtuseness did not end at the downloading stage though - the game requires multiple hoops to be jumped through to get into the action - different installations, creation of Activision online accounts, (complete with 2-factor password creation,) and multiple levels of menu hopping simply to find the correct options. UI design is something that is often overlooked - indeed, it is something that when done right, is invisible, and is only made obvious when done poorly... ...but in this case, it is extremely obvious, due to being extremely poor. That lack of good user-interface carries all throughout the game too - navigating Spec Ops and the limited MP I was exposed to is overly complicated, burdensome, filled with superfluous or contradictory information, and absolutely saturated with pushy advertisements for micro-transactional add-ons. It is understandable to a point, of course - COD is Activision's cash-cow, extremely popular, and designed with micro-transactions in mind - however, the level to which this stuff encroaches on the game - to the extent that it makes simply getting to the content that has been paid for difficult, is unforgivable, particularly in a franchise as high-profile and popular as this one. It's a shame, because the game contained within these menus is very fun - thrilling, action packed, great looking and genuinely worthy of its deservedly large audience... ...but it comes in a wrapper so woefully misguided and ill-designed, that it immediately sets the player on the wrong foot. Overall though, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare(2019) is a slick, fun, action-packed thrill-ride of a campaign, which aims for espionage war-time thriller, and largely succeeds. It's narrative is not particularly original or ground-breaking, but it works, and allows for a good variety of shooter scenarios across a tight campaign. It looks great, sounds excellent, keeps the adrenaline and the variety up pretty laudably throughout, and manages to reboot some beloved characters in a more modern context well, fleshing out the new versions, without trampling on the iterations of them that came before. The multiplayer remains the tent-pole of the franchise, (I assume,) and from what I understand, it's a good one within that bracket, however, the slightly Frankenstein amalgam of MP and SP that is Spec Ops leaves a lot to be desired... and the less said about the obtuse and convoluted menus and installation process the better! The Ranking: Modern Warfare tuned out to be a very odd one to rank, as it's a game, probably more than any other, that is affected as much by my own personal changing tastes. The two obvious comparison points are the two other modern military shooters on the list - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and while I would argue that the single player campaign in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare(2019) is actually better, certainly than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's, and probably also than Battlefield: Bad Company 2's... ...the fact remains that both those games pulled me in for a considerable amount of competitive Multiplayer. As much as I enjoyed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare(2019), it did not. In fact, the limited experience I had with Spec Ops was enough to convince me that I had no interest in the competitive Multiplayer - and whether that is down to the game itself, or simply my waning interest in the genre, is debatable. I'd argue it's really both. As a result, while I think Call of Duty: Modern Warfare(2019) has the single player campaign I would certainly be most likely to replay, I cannot see it ranking above either of those games. What I ended up doing, was simply ranking Call of Duty: Modern Warfare(2019) based on it's single player campaign, and therefore looking at other first-person shooters with narrative elements that I enjoyed. That, oddly, cemented a spot very quickly. I looked at the excellent narrative campaign of the first Metro game: Metro 2033, and realised that stacking them against one another, I believe the interesting narrative and all round greater sense of place and variety of Metro 2033 assured that it should (just) outrank Call of Duty: Modern Warfare(2019)... ...however, the game directly below Metro 2033 was Tales of Arise. I enjoyed my time with Tales of Arise, (my first Tales game,) but while there were many things to love in that game, it also had a fair few genuine issues - particularly narratively, in its back half. Despite still harbouring a fondness for Tales of Arise, I had to concede that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare(2019) should outrank it... ...and with no other games in between, it found its spot! Hardspace: Shipbreaker Summary: A sci-fi work-simulation and Puzzle Game hybrid from Blackbird Interactive, Hardspace: Shipbreaker sees the player take the role of a blue-collar spaceship scrap reclamation worker for the rather pedestrianly pseudo-evil Lynx Corporation. Set in the space equivalent of a scrap-reclamation dry-dock, The player finds themselves in enormous debt to the corporation (in the region of a trillion dollars,) and working in the equivalent of indentured servitude. With infinite time and infinite life at their disposal, courtesy of Lynx Corporations patented "Ever-Work Programme" wherein the worker's genetic data is stored, and can be re-inserted into "spares" upon death, (at, of course, the player's extreme expense,) there is little they can possibly do other than exactly what they are "employed" to do... ...cut, burn and slice apart the derelict spacecrafts in their dock, salvaging the useful parts, and sending the scrap to the furnace! Hardspace: Shipbreaker is an unusual game in terms of genre. In some sense it certainly falls into the slightly unusual "mundanity simulator" type games - the purview of such games as Power-Wash Simulator, House Flipper, Lawn-Mowing Simulator etc - in the sense that the task being undertaken by the player is, in essence, a continual repetition of a similar, workman-like task, and the difference between "good" and "bad" play is derived from the more successful completion of the task, and improving at the "job" comes more from the player learning how to do it more meticulously each time. There are, however, three distinct elements that set it apart from the majority of those games. Firstly, the setting and the task itself. While "Shipbreaking" is, in the fiction of the game, a mundane, workaday task, it is not simulating something any player will ever do in real life. The actual process of breaking a ship apart - the meat and potatoes of the game - manages to combine two elements, both of which are quite difficult elements to get right in a game. It is both immensely satisfying in a calming, Zen-like way due to the repetitive nature of the work... ...and also open to moments of extreme high-tension, due to the dangerous nature of the work. Each ship consists, realistically, of 3 types of materials - salvageable items (computer terminals/ chairs / desks / light fixtures / air-recycling units etc,) which are fired down to a collection barge below the dock, Valuable Materials, (precious metals etc which are fed to a recycling port,) and Scrap Metal (hull chassis etc,) which must be fed to an incinerator. The player has, at their disposal, a burning tool with different settings, ( which can be used to either meticulously burn off connecting brackets, allowing whole pieces of ships to be dislodged from one another, or can be used as a laser-cutter, slicing, in an immensely satisfying, tactile way, into the ships, slicing them apart,) and a gripping tool that can tether sections, and be used to shift or blast them into the various receptacles. As they progress, these tools, and their various suit functions such as oxygen tanks etc, can be upgraded, as well as augmented by the addition of tethers (used to move larger sections of ships, by connecting two points,) and explosive charges (used to blow apart tougher connecting joints. That is really all the player needs to know about the main process of playing the game... ...however, the fact that all of this work is done in zero-gravity, and the fact that each ship is so well designed and the rate at which additional complications are added with bigger and more advanced ships is extremely well implemented. The fact that the player feels they are getting better at the job, at the same rate they are upgrading the tools they use to do it, and are being offered more and more challenging tasks to meet that skillset and further test it is worked out to an incredibly satisfying degree. That brings us to the second way in which Hardspace: Shipbreaker stands separate to the general pack: the puzzling elements the ships afford. Because of the hard-sci-fi element of the game, there is a really smart balance struck between the "reality-based" elements of Shipbreaking, and the Sci-Fi elements. The Space craft being salvaged are, of course, not based on real vehicles, however, the physics and the make-up of them is grounded and realistic enough that while foreign, they follow quite clear and intuitive design rules. The player will not, the first time they encounter one, have any real notion of how to safely dismantle the tertiary systems that feed a reactor core on a ship, (and will likely need a spare, as they blow themselves up in the process!) however, once they have encountered a few, they will come to understand the science upon which the sci-fi elements of these ships is predicated - and be equipped to deal with new ones on new ships, because they follow the same rules. While each ship might be different, if there is a reactor, it will have similar systems powering it. It will have a similar casing structure. It will have a similar coolant system. In the same way that an auto-mechanic will likely be able to parse the makeup of a vehicle that they have not seen before, simply by understanding the guiding principles of a car generally, a player will eventually become familiar with the basic make-up of a ships internal systems. It becomes simply a case of figuring out how each ship differs, and how they use these systems. The rate at which new eccentricities and nuances are given to the player is very good too. While early ships will be small, light crafts with only rocket fuel, and single hulls, without additional hazards such as coolant systems or pressure locks, slowly but surely additional complications are added - and explained. No sooner does the player feel like they have mastered a ship type, than one will come along with - for example - multiple internal hulls, all of which have their own air-locks. These can, of course, simply be cut into... ...but it behoves the player to try and move through the ship systematically releasing pressure in a specific sequence - to avoid either blasting the whole ship off at an angle as the pressure releases in an uncontrolled manner... or having the last thing they see be an airlock door firing towards their head, and the shattering of their helmet! Its things like this - the additions of "uncuttable" materials, the addition of airlocks, of reactors, of coolant and environment systems, of more complex or complicated engine fuel systems, of flammable or reactive components... or even, in late game, of artificial intelligence nodes remaining on the ship (who do not want you to destroy them, and will use their rudimentary intelligence to try and stop you... say... by closing an airlock door on you and trying to trap you in with the reactor you just dislodged and is precariously ticking down to a meltdown!) - as well as the fascinatingly complex, yet grounded and varied nature of each individual ships build - that keep the game feeling genuinely fresh with every new 15 minute shift. While early ships might be completely dismantled in one or two shifts, the later game ones can take six or seven - several hours or real-time - but the actual task never gets boring, because there is enough variety in that gameplay, and enough upgradable elements to the living quarters and the tool set, that there is always an immediate goal just in reach with one more shift. That, of course, and the third way Hardspace: Shipbreaker sets itself apart: the narrative. Yes, narrative. While Hardspace: Shipbreaker's basic premise as a "work simulator" is excellent, and the balance struck for the actual work so satisfying and fun that it could very easily stand on its own without any real narrative... ...that doesn't stop it from having a brilliant one. Hardspace: Shipbreaker has no on-screen characters. At no point during the gameplay is another character model ever seen, however, the player is not alone. They are part of a crew. Off in the distance, the player can see that there are other salvage docks in the same orbit, and via the radio, they come to know the other members - Deedee, Kaito, Lou, and most notably, Weaver - the team foreman. Weaver serves as both the ongoing tutorial, offering the player both advice on new ship hardware, and a calm, encouraging manner, and the dialogue between him and the other members instills an odd sense of solidarity between the player and their unseen crew-mates. The back and forth between the characters works really well - because the game is about simply getting on with a task, and the satisfaction of completing it well, the sections where dialogue is accompanying that work has the feel of listening to a familiar podcast. The characters all have distinct personalities, all are in the same boat (and debt,) have the same gripes and grumbles about the company... and when, midway through the game, Lynx sends a brash, uncaring and almost sociopathically ambitious company man - in the form of Hal - to "help" (and almost immediately begin to undermine,) Weaver, the tensions that spark from that feel very real, and very realistic. The overall narrative arc and thematic hooks of the game - dealing with exploitation of labour, union forming (and breaking,) industrial action, solidarity and good vs. bad management are all done very well. In fact, when - in a late game moment, the game actually creates a situation where the team are undertaking a form of strike action - by deliberately sabotaging the salvaging - and the player can chose to either join with the strike, or be a scab and support the company... ...well, let's just say, I wish there had not been trophies for both options. I am perfectly happy to chose the "evil" path in choice based games generally - I have no issue killing the good guys and supporting the bad guys in a shooter or an RPG... ...but (perhaps owing to my family roots, or my Scottish heritage,) I have never felt more grossed out with y own in-game behaviour than when I was disappointing Weaver, and making Hal happy by undermining my team in their efforts! Thank goodness for save-reloading! On technical elements, the game is pretty much perfect. The game looks fantastic - there isn't a huge amount of variety in the graphical style, of course, (the game takes place entirely in the lonely dry-dock and the sparse living quarters afforded to the player by Lynx,) however, this area does look fantastic. The feeling of isolation in space is very real, and the visuals of Earth in the distance, the other docks floating around the planets, space, and the industrial, functional areas look great. Effects like burning and cutting look great and feel great, and the ships themselves are intricately and wonderfully well though out and designed. Different ship classes and manufacturers have thematic art-style signatures, and the feeling that all parts of this universe are following the same engineering and design principles never stops individual ships looking cool and unique within that. Audio is, quite simply, perfect. The voice acting is, as said, very good - well acted, and well written - but more than that, the whole game is scored with a fantastic southern-gothic-with-a-twang melancholic soundtrack by Jono Grant, Traz Damji and Philip J. Bennett, with synth remixes by the game's audio director Ben McCullough. The music fits perfectly with the vibe of the game, and more than that, has been a regular feature of my Spotify playlists since. The foley work is also of note - the industrial sounds of metal on metal screeching and tearing, the hums and buzzes of ship systems, the whooshes and thunderous clunks of airlocks depressurising (or fuel tanks exploding,) all sound great, and in the muted, slightly terrifying muffle of dead space, they really add to the lonely feeling of isolation and danger the player is in. Overall, Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a hell of a game. It serves two genres - the "task simulator" and the "narrative sci-fi" genres - and it serves both to a level rarely reached by games that aim only for one or the other. The actual task being undertaken is incredibly satisfying and genuinely interesting and fun to do, with a well honed and well implemented upgrade system, puzzle element and smooth, well-thought-out difficulty arc, - and would work as a perfectly good game simply with that alone... ...but the addition of a rich, well written and well acted narrative with quite a bit to say about labour laws and exploitation, the excellent visual design, and the absolutely fantastic soundtrack, make it a bonafide classic! The "task simulator" genre is generally a niche one - doing a "mundane" task is not something that appeals to all gamers... ...but never have I seen a game that remains ostensibly within that broad genre, with a better shot at converting even the most stubbornly anti-zen player! If you only ever sample one Task Simulator... ...Hardspace: Shipbreaker is the one! The Ranking: Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a really tough one to rank, since I don't really have too many comparable games. In terms of "work simulators" the best options were Unpacking and Papers, Please, but to be honest, while both those games are very good, I think Hardspace: Shipbreaker ranks quite a bit above both. In both cases, the task that should be boring is made fun, and in both cases, they manage to wring far more narrative, (and poignancy,) out of that task than one might expect... ...however, Hardspace: Shipbreaker does the same, while also having gameplay, visuals and audio that surpasses either game. The actual task being done in Hardspace: Shipbreaker is far more varied, compelling and genuinely fun than in either Unpacking or Papers, Please. In both Unpacking and Papers, Please, the narrative is what makes the game. They couldn't work without those elements. With Hardspace: Shipbreaker, I actually think the game could work perfectly well without any narrative at all - so the fact that it has a great one is just icing on the cake! I knew looking at the list that Hardspace: Shipbreaker was moving up into pretty loft territory, and so looked instead at two game that, while not in the same genre, do have some of the same feeling - some of the same "zen-puzzle-solving" - those being Cities: Skylines, and Return of the Obra Dinn. In the case of Cities: Skylines, I do think Hardspace: Shipbreaker cannot compete in a match-up. It has the music and narrative, of course, and the visuals too... ...but those are not the areas that elevated Cities: Skylines in the first place. It was raw gameplay, and as great as Hardspace: Shipbreaker is on that front, there is just so much to Cities: Skylines, and such endless, complex, clever interplay of mechanics, that Hardspace: Shipbreaker can't really touch it. Obra Dinn is interesting though. It's a completely different genre, but I did find quite a lot of similarity in how I felt when playing both games. They are both long games with individual puzzles to be solved, they both have great soundtracks and interesting visuals, and they both have a "zen-like" quality to them, owing to the lack of forcing the player forward, and the free-form way in which the puzzle can be picked away at. It was a very close one (it often is, when the games are similar in feeling, but wildly divergent in style and genre,) and I sat staring at both a long while... ...but in the end, I feel like Obra Dinn does still win in that particular match up, owing to it's very unusual setting, visuals and the nature of its "all one big puzzle" style - but it's by an absolute hairs-breadth! I dithered back and forth on that decision so much though, that it is only fair that Hardspace: Shipbreaker take the spot directly below it. That still leaves Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a comfortable, and very high spot... ...and deservedly so! So there we have it folks! Thanks to @grayhammmer for putting in a request! Hitman 3 remains as 'Current Most Awesome Game'! LA Cops stays as the worst-of-the-worst, with the title of 'Least Awesome Game' What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the top spot... or the bottom rung? That's up to randomness, me.... and YOU! Remember: SPECIAL NOTE If there are any specific games anyone wants to see get ranked sooner rather than later - drop a message, and I'll mark them for 'Priority Ranking'! The only stipulation is that they must be on my profile, at 100% (S-Rank).... and aren't already on the Rankings! 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grayhammmer Posted February 23, 2023 Share Posted February 23, 2023 When I saw you mention House Flipper in your Hardspace segment I went to your profile page to see if you had played it. I typed in House and saw the incomplete House of the Dead Overkill (Which I imagine will stay incomplete given that you last played it in 2013) and the 5 episodes for Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse. I then thought "Well, I imagine combining the five separate lists into one review would bring the legacy reviews count down by 5, thus expediting the process somewhat." And that is my thought process for why I am now requesting the analysis of Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episodes 1 through 5, I hope it made sense. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted February 24, 2023 Share Posted February 24, 2023 19 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! The new science journal is here - rejoice! 19 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Puyo Puyo Tetris Not the Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine reference!! I never actually played that, I just remember reading an EGM review of it when I was a kid. What can I say, I was a nerd then and I'm a nerd now. Lumines has been on the list for a minute, but lately you've been reminding me how much I love Tetris...one of these days I'll scratch that itch. 19 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Golf Club Wasteland Ah, the color debate game!! I'm not entirely sure this would be for me, but I love a good light comedy/dark setting pairing. The way you describe the atmosphere is quite appealing, and Radio Nostalgia from Mars sounds outstanding! I probably won't though. But I might. I- ....goddammit, Doc? 19 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: The Quarry Yo this was a particularly excellent write-up, just wanna get that out of the way! I've been curious about this game since well before the release, not just because I'm familiar with Supermassive, but c'mon, nobody is gonna mistake that 80s horror movie poster look! I love that you enjoyed it, and you've all but guaranteed that I will grab this myself at some point. The idea of them smoothing out those narratively choppy moments is tremendous to me - I have so much respect for developers trying to make a game that combines a high enough level of interactivity to create multiple paths, but the integrity of every one of them making thematic sense. I am a bit disheartened to hear that the ending(s) aren't quite as satisfying as Until Dawn's, but there's no shame in that - personally, I felt those were very satisfying, namely the everyone lives/everyone dies endings! Also I got mad love for Lin Shaye! It seemed for a while that whenever an intimidatingly unpleasant older woman was needed in a film, she took the call, and embodied those characters exceedingly well (though I feel somewhat insulting giving praise to that). Lastly, i misread Bandersnatch as Baldersnatch, and wondered for a split second if this was some slang trying to be a vulgar version of 'balderdash.' My reading comprehension, man... it ain't all that? 19 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) Woohoo!! I'm quite glad you liked this (it's one of few CoDs I've taken a great liking to) and that you made it past the needlessly arduous installation process. That and the UI (particularly for Spec Ops) were atrocious, and you make me wish I'd mentioned it when I wrote about it. I wish I'd warned you directly in fact, so sorry about that! The conflicted politics aren't something that bothered me so much, but I think it's because I've developed such a loathing for the 'USA!! USA!!' mindset that these games can fall into that I'll happily take a conflicted and unresolved outlook over that. But you're absolutely right, it does muddy things up a bit when the writers don't seem to know what they're trying to say! That's also a great point about the Spec Ops aspect, I couldn't put my finger on quite why it felt so vastly different from the campaign (in spite of being a sorta campaign itself), but that's exactly it - its got MP DNA! And I'm 100% with you on the MP thing - Medal of Honor confirmed it for me, I just don't care about that stuff anymore! Sorry man, I was a mouthy ass broad with this one? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted February 26, 2023 Share Posted February 26, 2023 (edited) It's been too long since I actually commented here instead of just consuming. It comes down to a hesitation to fill your wall with either an "I agree" or "damn, now I need to bump this up the priority list." But you deserve better. Heavenly Bodies On 17/01/2023 at 5:17 AM, DrBloodmoney said: Not only that - the game actually becomes far more exciting and interesting as a co-op prospect in Newtonian mode - because the ability to simply "swim" back to safety is removed. Funny how this happens sometimes, eh? Increased stakes = increased enjoyment? The ratios are the same with steaks, by the way, but I avoid co-op when enjoying steak where possible. The Entropy Centre On 17/01/2023 at 5:17 AM, DrBloodmoney said: As is fairly obvious from the review, The Entropy Centre is not on the level of Portal 2, of course, but is in the upper end of 3D puzzle games that are currently ranked. As such, I looked at the current front-runners on there, and the two that jumped out were Quantum Conundrum, and Superliminal. Both are great games, (Superliminal would arguably rank higher if it were longer) but the higher of the two is Quantum Conundrum, and I think The Entropy Centre is the better game of those two. More than enough of a recommendation. Sold! And if we can have a sub-genre called 'Souls-like,' we can also start 'Portal-like,' methinks. Treasures of the Aegean On 17/01/2023 at 5:17 AM, DrBloodmoney said: Overall, Treasures of the Aegean is a fantastic little game. It's not long - completion of the entire game is unlikely to take a player longer than a day or two, and a full, 100% run would follow shortly thereafter, but it really cannot be overstated how welcome the level of polish and finesse to be found here is. I tried putting my better half onto this. She hated it (lol) but said that it was "the sort of shit [I'd] enjoy." *shrug.* I guess that makes another recommendation? When you say "a day or two," do you mean a session or two, or are we talking somewhere in the 20hr mark for completion time of this bad boy? Norco On 25/01/2023 at 1:31 AM, DrBloodmoney said: As such, Transistor retains its place, but Norco finds its spot just below - becoming the new 18th best game on the ranking! You really pushed this onto my radar. I passed on it when I first saw it but your journey was a great sales pitch. The crazy elements to the story still give me pause, but 18th on a list this long and distinguished is a feat!! Red Dead Redemption What a game. On 01/02/2023 at 10:35 PM, DrBloodmoney said: it remains impressive - even today - how well the game captures the brutal majesty and the unforgiving beauty of the wide open swathes of land that make up its world. Fully agree. There are such large empty spaces but they're by design and accounted for. The wildlife, audio and soundtrack blend for an incredible and unique atmosphere. People and incidents seem to have a perfectly-timed waiting period before they appear on John's path and they don't all need you to interact with them. They're just going about their business. This sells the world as a living ecosystem somehow. Compared to RDR2 where you meet just as many people but they've all got some 'thing' going on. I've played that campaign once but I must have met a guy bitten by a snake half a dozen times - and yet there's so many different things happening in RDR2 that it's unrealistic to whinge that I should have 'only met the snake bitten guy once.' RDR1 somehow feels more real without that urge to always have something happening. On 01/02/2023 at 10:35 PM, DrBloodmoney said: Vocal work is good - it's not on the level of a Last of Us, I'd argue that John is, but not anyone else. But! RDR2 IS on that top level though. RDR2's dialogue, acting and mo-cap are top shelf. Golf Club Wasteland On 23/02/2023 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: In terms of stylings, there is real marrying of what should be clashing concepts too... though here, they are much, much more successful. The game is comedic in nature - at least in terms of the darkly comic concept of playing a frivolous round of golf in the destroyed wasteland of our society - but oddly, the actual tone of the game is not light at all. Actually, it is quite mournful and maudlin - to the extent of even being truly bleak and dark. Despite the cartoony visual style, and the bouncy, fun-times gameplay, the whole game is scored with a fantastically well produced and extremely good fake radio station - "Radio Nostalgia from Mars" - and it is this audio that provides both the first real moment of cognitive gaming dissonance, and the ongoing tonal elements of the game. Well wait just a minute - that wasn't on the box! That sounds really interesting. That's the hook that's reeling me in on this, tbh. Modern Warfare On 23/02/2023 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: ...because the nature of games means the narrative is crafted by committee, and lacks the singular point of view and clarity of vision of a single author, the actual politics of the story can tend to be muddled ... there often feels like there are conflicting ideologies at play within the game narrative ... the specific point of view of the game on these concepts does tend to feel muddled. At some points, the game clearly tries to espouse a "the world needs protecting, whatever the cost" mentality - siding with the black-ops, war-crime adjacent, rules-are-made-to-be-broken viewpoint of many of the principle characters. However, at other points, there is a clear attempt to undercut that and cater to a more left-leaning sensibility, by leaning more into a "the good guys are as bad as the bad guys" viewpoint, where the actions of the player are deliberately made no different than those of the antagonists... and where the characters themselves are conflicted as a result. These two elements can be made to work together well in some fiction, but in Modern Warfare, it never really gets there, as the individual scenes seem to swing too quickly from one to the other ... the game itself tends to feel a little wishy-washy in what it actually wants to say about the subject matter it tackles. YES!!! I think there's just as many "aaaand let's have a long look in the mirror now"-worthy moments in this as there are in Spec Ops: The Line, but the major difference is that Modern Warfare just keeps the train running at full pace instead of calling the player out and giving the player's actions room to digest. For me the interrogation scene with The Butcher and his family was the climax of the game because my own journey with it came to a natural conclusion [review pending!] but I highly doubt many players would take the time for actual reflection on what takes place in this game without having it all spelt out just a fraction more. On 23/02/2023 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: The Stealth sections and more contained action set-pieces are arguably the strongest parts - the Clean House level is a highlight, as is an excellent series of escalating fire-fights involving the extraction of an enemy combatant to and from an Embassy. A great stealth-focussed level late in the game involving a more free-form hunt around a residential compound at night has a great balance between stealth and combat, feeling tense, but with a loose enough stealth model not to feel oppressive. The more "open-warfare" sections do certainly feel frenetic and exciting, but tend to have the same issues most war-games do in these sections: the openness and higher body-count tend to make the game feel more "gamey" and the aspects that make it a game show more, (infinite spawning enemies, or checkpoint determination of enemy counts etc,) resulting in a loss of the realism as compared to the other styles of level. Hey! Get your own opinions! This is virtually word for word how I feel, Doc! Even down to the mission examples! ;p It's strange to see us literally on the same page (so far, at least) about a game. I'm glad you liked it and the recommendation wasn't a complete waste. It truly does have a repugnant first impression in a desperate attempt to NOT have players get into the campaign. Activision really wanted us to play Warzone instead. On 23/02/2023 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: UI design is something that is often overlooked - indeed, it is something that when done right, is invisible, and is only made obvious when done poorly... ...but in this case, it is extremely obvious, due to being extremely poor. A recommendation from my favourite YT channel on this subject. Are we far off of a 75% post? Edited February 26, 2023 by Platinum_Vice 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted February 27, 2023 Author Share Posted February 27, 2023 On 24/02/2023 at 6:35 PM, YaManSmevz said: Not the Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine reference!! I never actually played that, I just remember reading an EGM review of it when I was a kid. What can I say, I was a nerd then and I'm a nerd now. Lumines has been on the list for a minute, but lately you've been reminding me how much I love Tetris...one of these days I'll scratch that itch. Haha - do iiiiiiiitttttttt! ? I'm back on the Tetris train right now, courtesy of Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, and goddamn, if I still don't just love Tetris, even after all that punishment! On 24/02/2023 at 6:35 PM, YaManSmevz said: Yo this was a particularly excellent write-up, just wanna get that out of the way! I've been curious about this game since well before the release, not just because I'm familiar with Supermassive, but c'mon, nobody is gonna mistake that 80s horror movie poster look! I love that you enjoyed it, and you've all but guaranteed that I will grab this myself at some point. The idea of them smoothing out those narratively choppy moments is tremendous to me - I have so much respect for developers trying to make a game that combines a high enough level of interactivity to create multiple paths, but the integrity of every one of them making thematic sense. I am a bit disheartened to hear that the ending(s) aren't quite as satisfying as Until Dawn's, but there's no shame in that - personally, I felt those were very satisfying, namely the everyone lives/everyone dies endings! Also I got mad love for Lin Shaye! It seemed for a while that whenever an intimidatingly unpleasant older woman was needed in a film, she took the call, and embodied those characters exceedingly well (though I feel somewhat insulting giving praise to that). Thanks man! Yeah, man, Lin Shaye doesn't have a whole hell of a lot of screen time in this one, but she goes for broke with what she has - and being a big fan, I'm all for that! On 24/02/2023 at 6:35 PM, YaManSmevz said: Woohoo!! I'm quite glad you liked this (it's one of few CoDs I've taken a great liking to) and that you made it past the needlessly arduous installation process. That and the UI (particularly for Spec Ops) were atrocious, and you make me wish I'd mentioned it when I wrote about it. I wish I'd warned you directly in fact, so sorry about that! The conflicted politics aren't something that bothered me so much, but I think it's because I've developed such a loathing for the 'USA!! USA!!' mindset that these games can fall into that I'll happily take a conflicted and unresolved outlook over that. But you're absolutely right, it does muddy things up a bit when the writers don't seem to know what they're trying to say! That's also a great point about the Spec Ops aspect, I couldn't put my finger on quite why it felt so vastly different from the campaign (in spite of being a sorta campaign itself), but that's exactly it - its got MP DNA! And I'm 100% with you on the MP thing - Medal of Honor confirmed it for me, I just don't care about that stuff anymore! Sorry man, I was a mouthy ass broad with this one? As you should be, sir! Yeah, I'm quite glad this one finally got played - it was pure general consensus among our little group that made me finally think of checking it out - I had all but completely buried the idea of playing another COD, but was pleasantly surprised! On 26/02/2023 at 0:56 PM, Platinum_Vice said: The Entropy Centre More than enough of a recommendation. Sold! And if we can have a sub-genre called 'Souls-like,' we can also start 'Portal-like,' methinks. You'll super dig it I think man - your puzzle game credentials are self evident, so you'll probably blast through it, but it's a genuinely good one! On 26/02/2023 at 0:56 PM, Platinum_Vice said: Treasures of the Aegean I tried putting my better half onto this. She hated it (lol) but said that it was "the sort of shit [I'd] enjoy." *shrug.* I guess that makes another recommendation? When you say "a day or two," do you mean a session or two, or are we talking somewhere in the 20hr mark for completion time of this bad boy? I checked TrueTrophies, and my time was a biscuit shy of 20hours exactly - and I reckon some fucking about notwithstanding, it's probably somewhere in the 15-20 range. Heck of a game though - that actually surprised me, as I though it was shorter... which means I must have been having a good time, as it flew by! On 26/02/2023 at 0:56 PM, Platinum_Vice said: Norco You really pushed this onto my radar. I passed on it when I first saw it but your journey was a great sales pitch. The crazy elements to the story still give me pause, but 18th on a list this long and distinguished is a feat!! It is a WILDLY distinguished game! Not to be missed man - it gets my coveted, not-at-all-a-completely-made-up-thing-I-thought-of-right-now, "Dr.B Gold Star of Awesomeness"! My God, that game is just so damned good! On 26/02/2023 at 0:56 PM, Platinum_Vice said: Red Dead Redemption What a game. Fully agree. There are such large empty spaces but they're by design and accounted for. The wildlife, audio and soundtrack blend for an incredible and unique atmosphere. People and incidents seem to have a perfectly-timed waiting period before they appear on John's path and they don't all need you to interact with them. They're just going about their business. This sells the world as a living ecosystem somehow. Compared to RDR2 where you meet just as many people but they've all got some 'thing' going on. I've played that campaign once but I must have met a guy bitten by a snake half a dozen times - and yet there's so many different things happening in RDR2 that it's unrealistic to whinge that I should have 'only met the snake bitten guy once.' RDR1 somehow feels more real without that urge to always have something happening. I'd argue that John is, but not anyone else. But! RDR2 IS on that top level though. RDR2's dialogue, acting and mo-cap are top shelf. That's probably true actually - Marston does get the primo treatment, and his mobcap and acting are very good. That's interesting about RDR2 feeling less real for being more populated though - I've still not played any of RDR2 (I might someday, if I ever pluck up the energy for a game that size!) but I am intrigued - if only to see the differences, and how divisive it was! On 26/02/2023 at 0:56 PM, Platinum_Vice said: Modern Warfare YES!!! I think there's just as many "aaaand let's have a long look in the mirror now"-worthy moments in this as there are in Spec Ops: The Line, but the major difference is that Modern Warfare just keeps the train running at full pace instead of calling the player out and giving the player's actions room to digest. For me the interrogation scene with The Butcher and his family was the climax of the game because my own journey with it came to a natural conclusion [review pending!] but I highly doubt many players would take the time for actual reflection on what takes place in this game without having it all spelt out just a fraction more. You know - Spec Ops: The Line is one I only ever saw, and read about - I never actually played. Heard great things, and seemed like my kind of thing (especially at the time,) but for whatever reason, I just never got to it. On 26/02/2023 at 0:56 PM, Platinum_Vice said: Hey! Get your own opinions! This is virtually word for word how I feel, Doc! Even down to the mission examples! ;p It's strange to see us literally on the same page (so far, at least) about a game. I'm glad you liked it and the recommendation wasn't a complete waste. It truly does have a repugnant first impression in a desperate attempt to NOT have players get into the campaign. Activision really wanted us to play Warzone instead. ? On 26/02/2023 at 0:56 PM, Platinum_Vice said: Are we far off of a 75% post? Well, looks like we're at about 65% now, but with the lower pace of reviews now, and the new ones adding, I reckon I'll still be lucky to catch up to 75% this year... ...you never know though! Maybe Hitman: Freelancer will destroy my trophy-gathering so much that I can actually make some back-log review progress! ? Speaking of Hitman Freelancer.... Mini-Science Review incoming.... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted February 27, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 27, 2023 (edited) SCIENTIFIC RE-CERTIFICATION? A little update here, necessitated by the DLC addition to a previously ranked game, who's DLC I have now earned! (Actually, did I say earned? I meant played. There isn't any trophies for this one, so nothing to "earn" so to speak!) Hitman 3 Hitman: World of Assassination - Freelancer Mode Summary: Hitman 3 has a lot of modes. There is 3 game's worth of content included in the game already - a trilogy-spanning set of 23 unique, massive, clockwork maps, each of which contains its own wealth of areas, locations, campaign stories and things to do and see, 4 different specialised "Sniper Assassin" maps in the format debuted in Hitman Absolution's Pre-release teaser game, a full suite of side-content missions set in alternate versions of those maps (including the excellent 4-part DLC Patient Zero,) a collection of the 40 awesome "Elusive Target" missions, now repurposed into the "Elusive Target Arcade Mode", and available to everyone, the lengthly and curious "Seven Deadly Sins" campaign, (a seven-part, side-tracked campaign of odd or off-kilter mode variants,) as well as probably the most robust, user-friendly and infinitely variable User-Generated-Content creation suite any game has ever had, in the form of Contracts mode. It is a game that - as I alluded to and praised to high-heaven in the original Hitman 3 Scientific Analysis - has almost assuredly the most content of any game currently available on the consoles... and if that wasn't impressive enough, it is also among the best content available on consoles. The core gameplay of Hitman, despite remaining virtually unchanged since the blistering debut in the original soft-reboot Hitman(2016), is absolutely perennial, evergreen, and unimpeachably good. It is as fresh and crisp and fun and solid and endlessly playable as it was during that first Paris map, and has remain so, right through to the final DLC map of the third game - Ambrose Island. Adding new content to a game like Hitman is, of course, easy. I don't mean to make - I am sure that the creation of each one of the incredibly intricate, varied and vast levels is no doubt a herculean task, and the fact that the quality has held up each and every time IO has sone do is absolutely remarkable... ...but from a player stand-point, the game is crafted in such a way that getting a single new map is enough to feel like a huge content drop and a source of genuine excitement. A new map means far more in Hitman than it does in virtually any other game. It is not simply a few more hours of gameplay, and a "one-and-done" experience - it means at least 20-30 hours of new content for the real assassin explorer, a new potential map for a wealth of Contracts mode shenanigans... and of course, the potential for that map's inclusion in future modes down the line. When IO confirmed that, after 7 years of the World of Assassination trilogy, Ambrose Island would, in fact, be the final map, it was a sad day for me... ...but I was doubly curious what exactly would be coming in the form of the announced, but not detailed "Freelancer Mode". Without any new maps, what it would actually entail was something of a wild-card. Well, as it turns out, Freelancer doesn't have any new maps per-se... ... but what it does do, is make use of virtually every one of the existing maps, combine the best elements of Contracts mode, the Elusive Targets Modes, and the main Campaign Mode, mix them together with several new concepts for Hitman - including both rogue-like, and even home-decoration elements, and manage to turn them into arguably the way to play Hitman post-main game... ...in virtual perpetuity. Freelancer is - both narratively and figuratively - the natural end point and evolution of the modern Hitman Trilogy. Agent 47 (and by extension, Diana,) are finished - both with their fight against Providence, and with the ICA... ...but a skillset like theirs would be a terrible thing to waste. What's the point in being able to kill a man silently with anything from a sniper rifle to a unicorn horn to an explosive golf ball, in the middle of an impregnable fortress, without anyone ever knowing you were there... ...if you're not going to put those skills to good use? 47 is no longer under the operational purview of the ICA, but this next chapter in his life will see him in business for himself. Freelancing. And freelancing means two things: Making a home for himself, and engaging in ongoing, continual work. From a gameplay perspective, what this means is an interesting combination of a repeating, endless rogue-like mode, with easily the longest and most granular "mastery reward system" the game has yet seen - which feeds into a sort of home-decoration / upgrade element. This rogue-like mode essentially feeds from the idea of the narrative - Agent 47 is no longer under the umbrella of the ICA, and as such, no longer has the financial backing of them to fall back on. He and Diana are still broadly on the side of "good" - the people they are pursuing are members of various crime syndicates, but the "secretive" nature of this narrative hook allows virtually any person on any map to be made a target... and the narrative justifies it. The actual gameplay is, as said, a rogue-like. It makes use of most of the pre-existing maps, (the few that are too small or specialised are the only ones not represented - the ICA training facilities of course, Hawke's Bay, and the Carpathian Mountains,) and repurposes them, "Contracts Mode" style, giving both random starting locations, random targets, and random objectives to be completed. This plays into the thing any Contracts player already knew - that a single map can feel vastly different, and offer completely different challenges and puzzles, simply by changing the target, or the tools available, or the objectives. Each full "campaign" involves multiple, ever-increasing difficulty versions of the player selecting a syndicate to pursue - each of which features a set number of maps, and each of which has a different broad "theme" in terms of possible objectives... as Agent 47 does love a bit of irony. A "Big Pharma" syndicate of nefarious pharmacological executives, for example, will contain a lot of objectives tied to poisons. A "Psi Ops" syndicate will have a lot of objectives tied to blinding targets, and destroying cameras or surveillance. An "Eco Crimes" syndicate will have a lot of objectives tied to accident kills... as nature, (with a little helping hand from 47,) takes revenge on those who harmed it! After a set number of "preparatory" missions - following the rough design of the "contracts Mode" - the specific syndicate leader will be revealed... sort of. The final are will be the scene of a "Showdown Mission", wherein 47 has only one target - the Syndicate Leader - but only has clues as to their identity... along with a number of possible targets. These take the form of a sort of high-stakes "Guess Who" game - the player must hunt down each one, observe, and check them off based on a list of known information. "The target has red hair, is wearing a necklace, is wearing a hat, and glasses. They have a sweet tooth, are a smoker, and are here for a business meeting," for example. Based on these clues, the player must observe the suspects, and carefully deduct who is the real target. The stakes are high - failure of a Showdown results in a complete restart from scratch - and if the wrong one is killed, the danger is extreme. Any witnesses to any dastardly deeds can result in the real target fleeing, and the player failing the entire campaign... and roving lookouts (who can see through all disguises,) and assassin's (plain-clothes people, who have massively increased damage and can kill 47 in a couple of shots,) are a constant threat. These Showdown missions can feel a little overwhelming at first, but actually, end up becoming some of the most interesting ones. While the player might manage to identify a target, but not have any possible opening, they could, for example, find another suspect who would have attended the same meeting, take them out, steal their phone, then arrange said meeting... in a secluded spot. Assassin's might be a very serious threat... but they also carry one of the most coveted and elusive weapons early in the game: silenced pistols. While killing an assassin is tricky, the rewards are great for doing so. That push-pull between risk and reward is, in fact, the most fundamentally new element that Freelancer mode offers. While the base game of Hitman does offer some of the same risk/reward dichotomy, it is relatively tempered in the sense that the risk is somewhat nullified by the ability to save, and the fact that items, once available, are available in perpetuity, and the reward is relatively stable. A map can be pretty well mastered and milked for it's beneficial rewards, without the player necessarily having to do particularly well within it. Also, because of the stable nature of the targets in other (non-Contracts) modes, the player is easily able to rely on help. There are huge numbers of videos and guides for killing every single target - including the Elusive ones - available on YouTube, and any player can follow these, without really having to master the mechanics of the game. This is not the case with Freelancer.Freelancer, because of the genuine risks involved, the random elements, and the limited availability of weapons and gadgets, constantly requires the player to do things in ways they never would have attempted, had they simply had the option of going in in their favourite disguise, in their favourite spot, with their trusty Silverballer, lock-pick and emetic dart-gun... ...and that results in a far deeper, far more genuine and interesting exploitation of the game's mechanics required. I have lost count of the number of new mechanics that I never really exploited in the main game, that I was forced, by necessity, to try... and how that has improved my own mastery of the game. In Freelancer, if a target never moves from a crowded bar, and the player has no no clean shot, no easy way out, no poison, and no disguise... they cannot simply reset. Doing so fails the entire campaign. Instead, they have to improvise. What might happen, for example, if the fire alarm was pulled, and that person went to the fire-point muster? What would happen if a firework went off in the bar. Would they run? can that light fixture be released from a hidden spot... and would it hit them? Would it scare them enough to alter their route? Would it deflect attention long enough to simply stab them and run before the guards can get their shit together? It is as a result of all the above - it must be stated - quite a difficult, unforgiving mode. There is no saving whatsoever within maps. 47 has no fall back. Where in the main game, unlocks of new weaponry or gadgets was persistent, and governed simply by mastery of locations, in Freelancer, these weapons and gadgets are Agent 47's personal property. He has to buy them with money he makes himself. If he leaves a weapon behind on a map, it is gone, until he can purchase a replacement. If he is downed, and fails a mission, he loses all items he took with him. If he fails a mission, that is not necessarily the end of the current "campaign"... but other areas of the current campaign will shift to "alerted" status - meaning more guards, more suspicion... and the targets themselves being on high-alert, and immune to any and all disguises. That can result in the player feeling very out of their depth in the early game - indeed, I was level 800-odd in Hitman when I began my Freelancing, and still found myself getting shot to death with remarkable regularity! - however, it's really quite remarkable how the slow, progressive drip-feel of unlocks - both cosmetic, and material - and the burning satisfaction that comes with buying more and more weapons to adorn 47's arsenal (lovingly stored in glass cases around his basement-nerve centre,) really drive the player to keep coming back for more. It is not a mode to be played by the un-initiated, but feels like the perfect mode to come along at the end of the long cycle the trilogy has been on. It takes all the skills the players have honed over the past seven years, and crafts a mode designed to both test them, and keep their skills sharp in perpetuity. The focus, in fact, shifts in Freelancer - the goal is not on "perfect" runs or "perfect" scores - indeed, outside the umbrella of the ICA, 47 is no longer beholden to their rules, and as a result, the game actually dispenses entirely with the "Silent Assassin" rating in the final summary. Instead, Freelancer is about how much money 47 can make - how many objectives he can complete in each run, how many weapons he can amass for the next one... and whether he can kill the targets and get out alive. Without the warm blanket of save-scumming, that is the only true goal. There are some persistent unlocks - some specific weapons that feed back into the main game, or increased gear capacity (always useful,) but most of these are in the form of first unlocking areas of the new home, then upgrading them. While this might seem entirely cosmetic - and in most cases, is - it remains oddly fun and satisfying to see the home grow and take on life... and there are some specific mission-based benefits to doing so. Unlocking the garage, for example, happens to include a spot where 47 can find a handy wrench to take on missions. Unlocking the shed, allows mushrooms found in the woodlands around the house to be filtered through his makeshift still, into lethal poisons. A later upgrade of his infirmary, allows bottled poisons to be converted to syringe-based ones. Even something as innocuous as unlocking the kitchen, offers a spot where the player can easily find a single banana to take on missions... and as any Hitman player knows... a banana in the right hands, can be a serious item! I could keep going on and on about Freelancer Mode - listing the smart additions and hooks IO have put in it, or lauding the spectacular way in which they repurpose so many of the already blisteringly good maps and gameplay, change it just enough to challenge even the veteran player, and do so in a way that keeps them coming back for more, and more, and more... ...but it feels redundant at a certain point. Freelancer mode is, simply, sublime. It is one of the best new modes created for an existing game I have ever played, and given that the base game itself was already one of the best games ever made, adding to it to this degree is both an astounding achievement, and a success that invites bafflement. IO literally added a single mode to an existing game, that is more robust than most fully-fledged games I have played, is longer than most fully-fledged games I have played, is more variable than most fully-fledged games I have played... and is simply better than most fully-fledged games I have played. That it was free, is simply the astounding icing on the ridiculous cake. I - the person who considers Hitman 3 probably the best game of the generation - am saying that Hitman 3 just got immeasurably better. Just think about that for a second. Re-Ranking: Well... this feels awkwardly perfunctory! Hitman 3 is already in the No.1 spot, and so has nowhere to go but down... ...and given that Freelancer is easily the best new mode the game has seen across all 3 iterations, and a possible contender for the most exceptional new mode ever added, post-launch, to any game I have played (with only Mooncrash for Prey offering any real competition,) it sure as fuck isn't going to be moving it's parent game downwards! The old question I ask with every new Scientific Batch - "Will Hitman 3 finally meet its match?" - has become something of a running joke now - so long has the game reigned supreme as the No.1, and to be honest, I struggle to imagine it will be dethroned, given the sheer scope, scale, quality and richness of its gameplay... ...and all the Freelancer does, is cement that placement, making it all the harder for any game to ever beat it. Hitman 3 (or as it exists now, Hitman: World of Assassination) was already probably the most fully featured, variable, broad and massive game available on the console, and now, it has another mode added, that turns that stellar gameplay from near infinite... ...to actually infinite. IO: You deserve a goddamned round of applause. You did the impossible. You took the best game of the past 7 years, and made it better, not by inches, but by miles. Come at it, other games! Edited March 2, 2023 by DrBloodmoney 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breakingthegreen Posted March 6, 2023 Share Posted March 6, 2023 I've been thinking that the Sly Cooper games are a little low for my liking, but life is pain, and I'm gonna nominate Sly Cooper Thieves in Time and brace for the disappointment of someone daring to have a different opinion than me. You are missing the Sly Mini games list though, then you'd have completed all 6 unique lists ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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