October - Lots of racing in October and lots of games in general. Outside of the racing games, these are all very short, and maybe that's the secret to making progress.
October Game Reviews
Breath of Death VII - (PC) - (7.5) - Classic JRPG style with a little parody flair and some interesting mechanics
My tagline says little while also saying a lot. This game feels like it was made with RPG Maker (it might have been, not sure) with those SNES style pixel graphics and overworld.
Pretty short for a RPG, it can be completed in under 10 hours. The max level is also not the typical 99 or 100. So you can hit your power ceiling fairly early on, outside of item upgrades.
Speaking of item upgrades. You have weapons and armor. Pretty bare bones, but at least it is something. It helps that the game doesn't sell itself as something more than it is.
Combat is straight forward but surprisingly challenging. I never really felt like I hit that massive power creep that you can get in other RPGs. You can certainly outlevel enemies in certain areas, but at a point things do get dangerous for you no matter what level you are if a random encounter has a bunch of enemies. This is because the game does let you grow your attack power a good bit, but your survivability never hits what I'll call critical mass. So, even enemies that you can kill in 1 or 2 hits can still cause some serious damage if they're allowed to take their turns. It does have some depth potential as you can deliver bonus damage based on a combo meter which was kind of interesting.
The story is satirical in nature. It reminds me of Earthbound in some ways here. There isn't extensive dialogue in the game, but the pieces that are there are intended to be entertaining. For the most part I think it succeeds, but not to the level of a bigger game like Earthbound.
To this point I would have described the game as "fine". Which isn't a criticism. I think it kind of met expectations for a cheap indie game made by a 2 man dev team. Other games offer more depth in some of these areas, but I really wouldn't call anything bad. In fact a few of the components were pretty enjoyable. What really stands out to me though is how it handles some RPG staples, and I now wish more mainstream RPG's had them.
Battles & Random Encounters - Each zone has a "battle's left" counter, and when it hits 0 then you will no longer encounter random battles while exploring. This is an amazing QoL addition to a JRPG style game because it's nice being able to run back to an old area and not deal with a fight every few steps that will barely give any XP. Now, this does not mean that you are locked out of combat when the counter hits 0 either. There is actually a "fight" option in your basic menu that you can pull up at any time to generate an immediate encounter with enemies in that zone. So you can still level/farm gold if you want to. I also loved this feature because when I did want to grind some XP, I didn't have to run around in circles waiting for a random battle to occur.
Leveling - Most JRPGs have a set path that each character takes when they level. The main character will probably get like +6 strength & 10 Vit. Another character might get +8 MAG & 20 MP. Things like that. In Breath of Death, each character does fit into a certain archetype which defines their stats, but you're also given a choice at each level up. The game gives you an Option A and an Option B, each one offering slightly different level up bonuses. Maybe you learn a new spell at level up and you have to decide if you want it to be a really strong single target attack or a slightly weaker one that hits all enemies. Maybe take a +20 attack for that character, or a passive +10 for the whole party. You might even decide to turn the pre-destined mage into a melee fighter by selecting +strength options instead of +magic ones at level up. It's a really engaging system that offers some neat depth.
So overall it's "fine" low budget JRPG with a few mechanics that are both fresh to the genre and really interesting.
Command & Conquer Remastered: Tiberian Dawn & Red Alert - (PC) - (3.5) - RTS games should not be remastered
I loved these games when they first released in the mid 90's, and if I were to give them a score back then it would be much higher. Unfortunately, I just don't think that RTS games are conducive to remasters that are nothing more than graphical updates. RPGs and some other genres of games can get away with that type of remaster because the core of the game isn't necessarily the mechanics. That's not the case with RTS games though. These two games originally in 1995 & 1996, and the RTS genre made a bit of a leap forward in game play just a couple of years after that. These two remasters still feel like you're playing them on Windows 95.
Tiberian Dawn - There are just so many basic RTS mechanics that have existed for over 20 years that are not present in this game, and it's immediately noticeable. On the plus side, the graphics do look pretty good, but that is a very minor win. Also, the mission sequences just didn't feel great. Controls were often sluggish, which I imagine is another result of it staying so true to the original game. The one bright spot is the story and the cutscenes that you get in between missions. The acting and dialogue is certainly cheesy, and the story is far from great. I did find myself wanting to see what would happen next though.
Red Alert - It released a year after Tiberian Dawn, and somehow it feels worse gameplay wise. All of the above problems are true, but just worse. There are too many missions that rely on micro adjustments to your army that the game's engine is simply not good at doing. What makes matters worse is that AI pathing is beyond awful. You really need to monitor the route that your units take, and there aren't exactly great tools for keeping track of them.
I'm very happy that I can finally move this one into the completed section of my Steam library and move on to more modern iterations of the franchise
F1 25 - (PC) - (8.5) - One of the best official racing games ever
It's a big statement, but I have a hard time contradicting it. I was introduced to this series about 5 or 6 years ago, and I came away supremely impressed. I'm not necessarily a fan of F1 in general, but F1 19 was just simply a great racing game with a lot of depth. I was less thrilled about some of the subsequent versions, just because it didn't seem like much was added. I skipped F1 24 entirely, but decided to grab F1 25 on a recent sale. This feels like a huge leap forward in a lot of ways.
Race Weekend - One thing that I absolutely love about these games is the way that it handles race weekend and encourages you to get on the track and practice through various mini-games that offer rewards. I'll compare it to another recent release in Nascar 25 which also offers a small bonus for completing a practice objective, but that objective can be completed on lap 2 of practice and then you're done. F1 25 requires a minimum of around 10 laps to complete the various mini games, and the rewards also just feel more impactful.
Racing - It feels great. The cars are responsive, AI behavior seems good to me, and it does a good job of just making you feel connected. The latter is really driven by the interactions and race updates that your team gives you both passively as well as through optional query commands.
My Team (ie: the franchise mode) - This is where I notice the biggest improvements and where I really love this game. I liked the old "My Team" mode, but it always felt odd that you were this Owner-Driver. It's difficult to put into words, but I guess it just didn't feel authentic. In the new "My Team" you're put firmly in the position of team owner. You, as the user, still drive one of the cars but you just take the place of one of your 2 team drivers, either of which can be replaced at any time. I just really appreciated the change in the way that it made me perceive the game world. This is actually just a small part of the improvements that make me rave about the new My Team though. I had been begging for that last several years to add depth to some of the team managed aspects of this game. It all felt too linear and basic with how you would improve your car over time. Well, they've done a complete overhaul of the R&D as well as the business side of running a team. It all feels much more strategic now with many more options to pick at any given moment. This has moved it from just clicking the next item in the sequence to now requiring you to actually make decisions about the direction of your team.
Just a really fantastic game. My one complaint is the length of My Team. 10 seasons is just a really short experience, and I don't understand why they couldn't at least go to 15 or 20. In addition to this though the mode needs a rebalancing as it gets pretty crazy after just a couple of seasons once your upgrades get going.
Injustice: Gods Among Us - (PC) - (7.0) - A 4 hour experience
Admittedly I am not the best judge of fighting games. I'm not good at them, and I have no interest in multiplayer fights outside of couch co-op.
That being said, I feel pretty good about this score. The fighting mechanics were pretty solid and easy enough to learn. I also felt not only the differences in each hero/villain, but it also felt like I was that specific hero/villain which was cool.
The story was very good and overall well done. Definitely the highlight of the game. Also, as someone who hates Superman, I got some extra enjoyment out of him being the antagonist.
The score could have been higher, but I already gave away the lead in the tagline. The single player campaign can be completed in about 4 hours, and there is very little to do with the rest of your time unless you engage in multiplayer. Other fighting games like Mortal Kombat or Dead or Alive will offer a small story for each playable character, but Injustice only offers the single cinematic experience.So, this is a summary of the replay value. I completed the main story campaign and then uninstalled the game.
The game is a fun experience, but only worth it on a major sale (I think I got it 90% off on Steam)
Injustice 2 - (PC) - (7.5) - Injustice 1, but better
Basically copy & paste everything that I said about the first game, but better. Graphics are better, combat is more fluid, more Harley Quinn which is better, and the story is better. To emphasize how good the story was, I just didn't want to put the controller down. Personally, I also got more enjoyment out of the playable cast that is part of the cinematic story versus the original too.
Pretty much all of my criticisms are still there too. The main campaign can be completed in about 4 hours, and it does not have the traditional story ladder for the entire cast that other fighting games do. There is this huge roster of characters within the game, but the main campaign only gets you experience with a handful of them. So, unless you are playing multiplayer then there is little incentive to go and play with them.
I also really wish that there was more of a Mortal Kombat tie in with the game. If you only played the main story and never looked at any of the other menus then you wouldn't even know that sub-zero and other MK characters were there. It makes their existence feel like window dressing rather than a feature of the game, and it could have been a cool crossover story campaign. Maybe that can be part of Injustice 3. As much as I like the story of the first two games, I do think that it needs to go in a different direction in future titles.
Nascar 25 - (XBSX) - (1.0) - My biggest purchase regret in a couple of years
For me to give a 1.0 to a game then it isn't has to be an unplayable bug filled mess or it has to under deliver so massively that it is unplayable and sets the franchise/genre back years. This is a case of the latter.
I rate it so low because it's so fundamentally shallow and honestly feels like a bait-and-switch from the developer. I watched the Dev Diaries, and I fully acknowledge that they always talked a lot without every really saying anything. However, they did make several references with regard to their own experiences and influences that I think made it very reasonable to expect something other than the recent-ish relaunch of the Nascar Heat series. They mention Dirt to Daytona and the old EA Nascar games. Games that certainly had their arcade like features, but also had a lot of sim depth. In those old games you could be running great and then blow and engine and you're either out of the race or you're just running at minimum race speed to complete laps. A major wreck felt like a major wreck because cars would either be wiped out of the race or they would have clear damage on them even after a pit stop. Nascar 25 doesn't have any of that. Wrecks that should result in serious injury and require an entirely new car, you get a full reset after a short pit stop.
The social media feed is entertaining, but it's also window dressing. You can intentionally wreck the same guy in 5 straight races, and the social media comment will pretty much be the same each time. There also won't be any on-track consequences from doing such a thing because the game doesn't feature any kind of driver relationship system.
Race weekend is okay. It does technically offer you some incentive to practice and qualify. The incentives are quite shallow though, and all they really require you to do is hit specific lap times once.
Racing itself leaves a lot to be desired. AI behaivior ain't great. They are passive, and they don't really battle each other a lot. I see so many cars start and end in roughly the same place each race. The UI is bare bones, you can't even see the full grid in the pause menu. The spotter does a good job of telling you that there is a car around you, but the experience is quite soulless after experiencing any of the F1 games since 2019. Caution flags are inconsistent, and pitting under them is entirely simulated with it just fast-forwarding to the green flag restart, and you're given limited information of what the other cars did under caution (you can only see if they pitted or not, and you can only see this for the cars in the first 4 or 5 positions around you. Adding to the arcade feel, pitting has limited options. You can get fuel, choose how many tires you want, and you can decide if you want to fix any damage. Any and all other pit lane decisions that a real Nascar team would make are non-existent.
The game is sluggish in its performance at times. I experienced multiple frame drops while racing. I'm not sure if this was track specific or what the causes were. I just know that they happened more than once or twice.
Graphically the cars and tracks look fine. Though the grand stands look like something out of the PS1 or maybe even earlier console generation.
Is it a bug riddled game? Not really, but it is a game that offers little to nothing that I can point to and say "I enjoy this part of it"
Nascar Thunder 2004 - (PS2) - (8.0) - It's sad how much better PS2 era sports games were than their modern counterparts.
After my abysmal experience with Nascar 25, I needed to experience an actual GOOD Nascar game. I am viewing this game through the lens of it currently being 2025, not 3 hardware generations ago. So, the score above would be higher if it was still 2004. Reviewing it in 2025 is a bit of a challenge because it does show its age in some areas, but the overall package is still really good. My memory of the game was clearly more romanticized than other similar PS2 sports titles like Madden & NCAA Football (which are both deeper and play a better game of football than their modern counterparts), but I can still confidently say that I would rather spend time playing this than any Nascar game in the last 15 years.
Music: 10/10 - I'm not including as part of the overall score, but I wanted to list here it because EA really nailed the music in their sports games in that era. Every song on there was a banger.
Graphics: 5/10 - I wouldn't say that they are bad when looking at it through the lens of a game that is more than 20 years old, but obviously there have been significant graphic improvements over the last 2 decades. Not something that I care a lot about in terms of enjoyment though thankfully.
Gameplay: 7/10 - This is where I was most disappointed in my re-introduction to the game. It's clear that the game was not designed for trigger controls. Acceleration and Break are not pressure sensitive, you're all-in either way. This makes the cars handle very jerky and literally impossible to take a corner properly (as in how a REAL car would take a corner with balancing the breaking and acceleration). Certainly not the most realistic handling, but it works well enough. The AI behavior has seemed pretty solid. The AI will challenge you for position, and they won't give it up easily even if you're their "ally". Overall I like the relationship system with allies and rivals, but it's a bit too dramatic. You can spend half the race building up someone as a rival, and a small bump will turn them into a big rival. When someone does become a rival they actually want to cause you pain and will go out of there way to seriously wreck you. It's a really interesting system that would be better if they had toned down the arcade-ish of it. I do appreciate that you actually can get knocked out of a race and DNF though. That is sorely missing from recent Nascar games. I was disappointed to see how powerful the repair option was on pit road though. I don't mind it being a little arcade, but getting your car back to basically perfect condition is not what I was hoping for.
Career: 8/10 - You car customization options are fairly limited. You can make something look pretty good, but you are just so limited in even something like what number your car is. It's not bad, but it isn't a huge win either. The other elephant in the room as it relates to career is its approach to progression. Unless you're playing on easy, you're going to be straight up uncompetitive in your first season, and there will be tracks that you're just not competitive at even on the lowest difficulty. It's pretty disheartening to go into that first race at Daytona and know that you just don't have the power to keep up. Even if you try to cheese it with some whacky pit strategy and intentionally wrecking others, your car just isn't there. Outside of those two things though, career is really good. The financial system progresses at a good pace and is very rewarding. There is a lot of depth with being able to hire individual pit crew members and your R&D staff. Having to balance your different engines, chassis, and R&D efforts is very rewarding.
Presentation - The pre-race commentary is actually not that bad. It gives little headlines about some of the drivers and a brief story about the track. Post race is pretty generic, but I appreciate it enough. In-race presentation doesn't offer much other than you're spotter, but it's no worse than what Nascar 25 has, maybe better still actually due to the existence of the reputation system. You are able to see the full race grid while in the race (something I didn't think I would praise a racing game for until Nascar 25 happened), and there is a pretty detailed statistical breakdown that you can sort through.
Overall - It's more arcade than I remember, but it might as well be a real life Nascar experience for how much more realistic it is over the recent Nascar 25 or any of the recent Nascar Heat games. It offers an enjoyable enough on track experience with a lot of depth in managing your team as you build it up. It's a game that shows its age yet still delivers a fun experience.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer - (PC) - (6.0) - An okay return to a classic series
I only really have prior experience with this series on the Dreamcast. I don't remember which version that was, but I enjoyed it. It was a unique take on street racing, that I know some other racing games later adopted some of the mechanics, and I enjoyed the setting. All that said, it's been long enough since I played the Tokyo Xtreme series that any new game would be a very fresh experience.
To put it succinctly. I don't love it, but I also don't hate it. It seems fine for what it is, but I was somewhat disappointed. I'm not sure if I just have an overly romanticized memory of the old Dreamcast game or if this one just does not deliver, but I have had difficulty in finding motivation to keep playing through this one. I think it has to do with the grind. I'm not a stranger to grinding in games, but it just isn't very satisfying in TXR. To make a comparison, I have many complaints and criticisms around Gran Turismo 7's grind. But they are largely centered around the late game grind. TXR makes you start grinding as soon as you enter the game, and maybe that's where it is not resonating iwth me.
Currently Playing
An Assortment
Gaming goals for 2025:
Complete 8 single player games
Progress:
1 - Clair Obscur Expedition 33 - (10.0) (Apr)
2 - Clair Obscur Expedition 33 100% completion (it counts) (May)
3 - Batman Arkam Asylum - (8.0) (Sep)
4 - Command and Conquer Remastered: Tiberian Dawn (Oct)
5 - Command and Conquer Remastered: Red Alert (Oct)
6 - Injustice: Gods Among Us (Oct)
7 - Injustice 2 (Oct)
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2025 Game Release Radar:
Unexpected Purchases:
Stellar Blade PC
The List
Games I will likely Pre-order:
Games that I'm really excited about, but I have a hint of hesitancy
Intrigued but wait for a sale (a big one)
Others on my radar
2025 Game Reviews
January Game Reviews:
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle (PC) - (7.5) - Good bones on this suspense/shooter
Diplomacy is not an Option (PC) - (8.5) - Really fun Survival/RTS.
Earthbound (Switch - Online) - (9.0) - A classic revisited.
Madden 2007 (PS2) - (9.0) - How is a nearly 20 year old game so vastly superior to any football game currently on the market?
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch) - (8.0) - What a weird experience.
Feb Game Reviews - None
March Game Reviews:
Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition - (PC) - (9.5) -
OOTP 26 - (PC) - (7.0) -
Cyberpunk 2077 - (PC) - (6.5) -
April Game Reviews:
Clair Obscure Expedition 33 - (PC) - (10.0) - Incredible
June Game Reviews:
Stellar Blade - (PC) - (8.5) - Solid across the board
Just a really solid game. Combat plays fast which is something that I appreciate. There is a pretty good character progression system which offers lots of different skills. The game is challenging without being overly punishing. It also runs fantastic on PC which is something that you don't always get with ports.
Honestly hard to find anything to criticize the game for. It's just kind of solid throughout
July Game Reviews
EA CFB 26 - (XB1) - (6.5) - 2 small steps forward, 1 step back
I'm sure this will be considered a hot take, but I don't think that CFB26 is a very good game. This is going to be a long review because it's a game that I really WANT to like.
I do think that it is better than CFB 25 (at least in some of the ways that I care about), but I was even more critical of CFB 25. The series exists as the only modern college football games available to us in 2025, and they are the first games of their kind in over a decade. This gives them quite a free pass (I waited a month and a half before reviewing the game last year because I wanted to give it so many chances) and imo it creates a lot of scenarios where people view the current series with rose-tinted-glasses. I do hope that some things improve with patches, but I don't think it's unfair to review a game that has been out for over 2 weeks now.
EA clearly took the approach of refinement rather than evolution for the 2nd iteration of this series' return. I don't think that this was too surprising, and we do see some good things that come from this refinement. Formation subs have been added and there are numerous QoL additions to the dynasty hub like being able to access a player's card from any screen. It's a small thing, but one of my biggest complaints in last year's game was that it gave me no reason to spend time in the dynasty hub. Arguably it actively dissuaded me from spending time there due to how inconvenient certain menus were and what kind of information was available in others. So kudos for cleaning up some of those things, and that is where I think the game has seen the most improvement. However, I think it's also a far stretch from actually being good in this arena. Matchup previews at the play week screen still default to team ratings rather than team stats (even though the later is an available feature seen in the post season). We don't have certain team historical stats like we had way back in NCAA 14, and some menus are still quite inconvenient to navigate. So, while the dynasty hub has improved it is still a relatively shallow experience.
Some of the presentation aspects are improved too. My first game I saw a graphic for "keys to the game" during the pre-game. This was something that we had in much older versions of the game (I don't recall it being in CFB 25). Unfortunately it is inconsistently applied to the experience though. It popped up in my first 2 games at launch, but I've only seen it sporadically since then. I don't understand why this would not just be a staple for every pre-game. I have also found that the in-game commentary is generally more accurate than last year. It still has its moments, but I have far fewer instances of thinking that the commentary is just factually wrong.
The transfer portal is much more impactful this year too which was another one of my huge complaints last year. Roster turnover wasn't a thing at all in CFB 25 (outside of guys graduating), and so I really like that I now have to manage playing time of my roster. Playing Style is still kind of a broken aspect of the system though due to how certain aspects of the game function. I like the idea of location based recruiting. I think that is a huge plus for the mini-game that is recruiting. It's kind of offset by just how easy it is to recruit though, and I think it has some unintended consequences for those seeking a simulation experience too.
We also got a whole bunch of new sliders to give us more ways to customize our experience. I consider this a huge plus. There were also some gameplay enhancements like the new blocking schemes that I think are a net positive.
Lastly the addition of real coaches does bring a little more connection to the game world and the real world. The coaching system in general is also improved imo with how some things were rebalanced. I still hate the system in general though as it forces arcade style power ups inside of linear skill trees that have more sim-like powerups later on down the skill tree.
I mention a lot of positives here, but I also mention a lot where the execution didn't fully deliver. This is the general theme of my experience with the game.
Last year I said "If the game play is an 8/10 then everything else is 2/10". I focus a lot on the "everything else" above that is improved, but I think the gameplay has taken a noticeable step back.
Gameplay and Penalty sliders have little to no effect, whereas they did feel more impactful a year ago. Penalties in general seem to be turned down (despite the in-game help box noting that sliders at 50 are based on real world data). RoboQB is in a state that is as bad as it has ever been for the entirety of EA's college football game franchise. LB's now attack the run gaps with impunity. Now, I actually do like this from a gameplay standpoint, it makes running the ball actually have some challenge. But it's not ratings based at all. A 60 ovr and a 90ovr linebacker will attack the run in the exact same way, which brings little variety to the game-to-game experience.
The halftime show is still terrible and not worth watching. Focus players in the pre-game have their overalls listed instead of their stats, yet another instance where I struggle to see this as an acceptable state of a full price game that didn't offer much in the way of big feature improvements from the prior year.
HFA is still implemented in such a way that is completely asinine in how it creates incorrect play art for your team. Make it hard to audible, increase the chances of false starts or even delays for your Oline at the snap. I'm even okay with some level of stat penalty for composure loss. Home Field in the real world because of how it impacts your ability to communicate at the line of scrimmage, and sometimes even just getting the play in at the huddle. It does not make players suddenly forget what play was called 2 seconds earlier in the huddle though. So, seeing the play art for a run play when I called a pass, just because the stadium is loud, is absurd. Not only is that not a simulation experience, it doesn't even follow the design philosophy of any other parts of the game (including HFA) because it's the only feature that can be 100% overcome by "skill" (in this case, memorizing your playbook). This aspect of HFA needs to be completely removed or at minimum a customization option offered. I actually like the challenge that HFA brings to the the table with the other things that it does (which are life-like), but I would rather not have the feature at all than to have incorrect play-art.
The introduction of career wear & tear may indicate that their heart was in the right place in adding nuance to your roster decisions, but it's both poorly executed and the career W/T pool makes little sense from a sim perspective. 18 and 22 years should not be worn down by the grind of their short college careers. This would absolutely make sense in a Madden game where guys have already played their college careers and go on to play another 10 in the NFL (hitting 30 years old and later), but not for a college game.
This only played a minor part in my overall view of the game since I am a 99% dynasty player, but RTG is terrible. I don't know how they heard feedback of "we want high school games like we had a decade ago" and implemented a series of 4 scenarios per game where you are only graded on whether or not you perform specific challenges.
Going back to my separate rating scale from a year ago. As of right now I'd give the Gameplay about a 6/10 and "everything else" about a 5/10. Which comes in a little shy of the 6.5 overall score, but I do give it a bonus for being the only college football game in existence right now.
I'm still playing it because I love college football, and even a mediocre college football game will provide me with entertainment. I don't play it for hours at a time like I used to in years past though.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers - (PC) - (8.0) - A good challenge
Maybe I like these types of games more than I think. I like Stellar Blade and I loved the old Ninja Gaiden games. But I do struggle to embrace the concept of "difficulty is a feature" in video games. But I once again finding myself enjoying one of these games.
Wuchang has a few things going for it. The environment and general atmosphere are hugely appealing. Now, I am biased as I do generally like East Asian aesthetics, but for people who whare my interest then I think you will find that it offers a solid atmosphere.
The game is challenging, borderline punishing. The sparse places to save your game can be frustrating, but I do find the overall challenge to be just under that threshold where it would make me rage-quit when I die and have to start back from the last shrine. It nails the balance there imo.
There are some interesting mechanics combat and death. Death can be rewarding or it can be extremely punishing. I think people's take on this will largely depend on their skill level. I don't think that I am particularly good at these games, but after about an hour of learning the game I rarely died anymore.
As a PC player I also benefit from having a pretty powerful PC. Most of the negative Steam reviews seem to be around performance, with console players generally like the game more since its better optimized there.
I rate it just a half step behind Stellar Blade since it is definitely more punishing and forces a slower pace of combat. It isn't so slow that it feels like you're just bogged down though, and I think it's just a solid experience across the board.
August Game Reviews:
Madden 26 - (XB1) - (7.5) - Best Madden in years, but it's still Madden
The first Madden that I have pre-ordered in a long time after some really exciting pre-release announcements, and I have to say I don't totally regret that decision.
For the Pros:
-The new coaching system is really interesting and a huge step in the right direction. I love the idea around gameplan loadouts as they do provide somewhat of a simulation experience since. By that I mean, you don't have a full skill tree of passives that are active at all times, the loadout system can be seen as simulating real weekly gameplanning.
-I love the new heavy snow & rain. I've wanted extreme weather in football games for so long, and I am happy that it's finally here. I do think that the default impacts are a little over stated, but I can live with that since we do have the sliders
-The new half-time show and weekly presentation are massive improvements over what Madden has had for 2 console generations now. They are actually interesting to watch and worth paying attention to.
-I think aspects of the running/passing game and defense all feel better in this year's game.
-The commentators are less horrible than they were in last year's game.
Now for the Cons:
-The downloadable draft class (and other downloadable sections) UI is beyond atrocious. It's only slightly more user friendly than what NCAA Football on the PS3 had when you had to type out a user's name to get a roster. I can not fathom why someone actively went to this UI last year and again this year when they had a functional system before. This is a major con because one of the major features that Madden has added to their franchise depth in the last 15 years is downloadable draft classes, and the current roster share system is almost unusable.
-The commentators are less horrible, but that only means that they are tolerable enough to only mute every other game.
-Aspects of gameplay feel better, but there are still some glaring issues. RoboQB is alive and well, just like in CFB26. Even though it's technically possible to get realistic completion percentages with heavy slider adjustments, the core gameplay issue is still there. Just like in CFB26, it's treating the symptom of high completion percentage, but the perfect accuracy still impacts the game in other ways and that can't be fixed with sliders.
-Penalties...where are they? EA's own in-game note states outright that the default penalty slider at 50 should reflect real world data. I haven't seen a pass interference yet, only a couple of false starts and like 3 holds.
-Team relocation is very stale. They clearly haven't put any resources into this in several years, choosing instead to rely on teambuilder. I get the appeal of teambuilder, but I'd rather have some curated options with game focused presentation elements (if you pick to relocate or use a teambuilder team then the overall presentation package is of a little less quality as it doesn't know how to deal with custom names and such which to me provides a diminished experience).
-For the love of god EA. Let us see the coin toss in the pregame in your football games!
-The scouting system that Madden implemented a few years ago is still terrible. It's a system that I actively avoid and do not engage in, even though I want the sim experience. It's terrible, and I seriously question the people who designed and authorized it.
The game has improvements, but it also just has so many legacy issues which limit its overall potential
September Game Reviews
Batman: Arkham Asylum - (PC) - (8.0) - Just a solid game
Even though it is not a long game, it took me about 5 years to complete. I enjoyed every gaming session with it, but these stealth type games are also just not my cup of tea. Still, I recognize it for being really solid throughout.
The story was probably the weakest part of the game to me. It was a neat idea, but I just had a hard time connecting to the idea that all of these super villains, contained to the island, was something that only Batman could handle.
Gameplay was solid. The stealth mechanics worked great, and it was fun moving around as batman. Outside of stealth, the combat plays out like a pretty average beat-em-up which wasn't thrilling, but it also wasn't bad.
My overall enjoyment of the game was probably less than the overall score that I gave it, but I am giving it a boost as I recognize that the stealth genre is not my favorite. Nothing really stands out about the game as being really great, but
Diablo 4 - (PC) - (7.5) - An update
I was very critical of this game post launch and again when the new expansion dropped last year. I'm going to highlight some of the key components of D$'s life cycle and where it has improved (if at all)
The Leveling Experience - It's awful. Each new season brings a need to go through the leveling process again. This would be fine were it not for the fact that D4's leveling is so bad. It's objectively not rewarding, and I don't think that many people even find it fun. You can argue that this part of the game isn't supposed to be particularly rewarding, but they drag it out too much. When a new season would launch in Diablo 3, a skilled gamer could hit max level and start farming paragon after about an hour. A semi-hardcore could get there in about 3 hours, and a complete casual could get there in about 6. All of those values are about 3x in Diablo 4, which isn't a great thing. This made especially true when you want to go through and create your 2nd and 3rd characters in a season. In Diablo 3, that game allowed you to instantly boost your characters power with your accumulated paragon. In D4, you can't use your paragon until level 60 so you're just starting from scratch. If you have a friend to PL you then you can get back to 60 in about 30 minutes to and hour (depending on how strong your friend is), but if you go it solo then you're going to go through the motions at almost the same speed as your first character.
Item drops - Diablo is a game where item drops and low chance RNG is basically feature. The game really takes it to the extreme though. I think that Mythic items drop slightly more frequently than they used to but the drop rates are still way too low. Rune drops are criminally low on the RNG scale (which also compounds the problems with the Mythic drops due to how the crafting works in Diablo). By the time that you hit around paragon 150, you're likely to go a very long time without any equipment upgrades. Considering that the game is about grinding out progression and new armor, then doesn't feel great to go long stretches with almost imperceptible improvement.
Monetization - The microtransactions are all cosmetic which is nice that it is not p2w. But the cosmetics are quite expensive, and the game really doesn't offer much for cool cosmetic without paying real money. It's a minor thing in the grand scheme, but it would be nice if buy 2 play players had a little more customization in how their character looks.
QoL - There are massive improvements here. For most of the game's existence, each season has only featured a handful of classes that could really tackle the true endgame. In season 10 it looks like we have more meta options than ever to play around with which is great. The biggest QoL change was the one made to Lair Bosses. To put it plainly, Lair Bosses were inanely implenented in Diablo 4. They wanted to have mechanics and stages like a MO without understanding the way that a ARPG is played. In season 10, they finally made it so that you can DPS through a boss before any of their stages take shape. This is a massive win.
Improved Endgame Activities - They have done a lot over the last 2 seasons to really expand what you should be doing at the endgame. For the most part this still revolves around lair bosses, but they have at least closed the gap with some of the other activities. The lack of a leaderboard for pit pushes is still an odd choice and it's one thing that limits its current potential, but at least the endgame is improving.
It has plenty of things that it can improve on, but I can finally say that D4 is a worthwhile game.
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October Game Reviews
Breath of Death VII - (PC) - (7.5) - Classic JRPG style with a little parody flair and some interesting mechanics
Spoiler
My tagline says little while also saying a lot. This game feels like it was made with RPG Maker (it might have been, not sure) with those SNES style pixel graphics and overworld.
Pretty short for a RPG, it can be completed in under 10 hours. The max level is also not the typical 99 or 100. So you can hit your power ceiling fairly early on, outside of item upgrades.
Speaking of item upgrades. You have weapons and armor. Pretty bare bones, but at least it is something. It helps that the game doesn't sell itself as something more than it is.
Combat is straight forward but surprisingly challenging. I never really felt like I hit that massive power creep that you can get in other RPGs. You can certainly outlevel enemies in certain areas, but at a point things do get dangerous for you no matter what level you are if a random encounter has a bunch of enemies. This is because the game does let you grow your attack power a good bit, but your survivability never hits what I'll call critical mass. So, even enemies that you can kill in 1 or 2 hits can still cause some serious damage if they're allowed to take their turns. It does have some depth potential as you can deliver bonus damage based on a combo meter which was kind of interesting.
The story is satirical in nature. It reminds me of Earthbound in some ways here. There isn't extensive dialogue in the game, but the pieces that are there are intended to be entertaining. For the most part I think it succeeds, but not to the level of a bigger game like Earthbound.
To this point I would have described the game as "fine". Which isn't a criticism. I think it kind of met expectations for a cheap indie game made by a 2 man dev team. Other games offer more depth in some of these areas, but I really wouldn't call anything bad. In fact a few of the components were pretty enjoyable. What really stands out to me though is how it handles some RPG staples, and I now wish more mainstream RPG's had them.
Battles & Random Encounters - Each zone has a "battle's left" counter, and when it hits 0 then you will no longer encounter random battles while exploring. This is an amazing QoL addition to a JRPG style game because it's nice being able to run back to an old area and not deal with a fight every few steps that will barely give any XP. Now, this does not mean that you are locked out of combat when the counter hits 0 either. There is actually a "fight" option in your basic menu that you can pull up at any time to generate an immediate encounter with enemies in that zone. So you can still level/farm gold if you want to. I also loved this feature because when I did want to grind some XP, I didn't have to run around in circles waiting for a random battle to occur.
Leveling - Most JRPGs have a set path that each character takes when they level. The main character will probably get like +6 strength & 10 Vit. Another character might get +8 MAG & 20 MP. Things like that. In Breath of Death, each character does fit into a certain archetype which defines their stats, but you're also given a choice at each level up. The game gives you an Option A and an Option B, each one offering slightly different level up bonuses. Maybe you learn a new spell at level up and you have to decide if you want it to be a really strong single target attack or a slightly weaker one that hits all enemies. Maybe take a +20 attack for that character, or a passive +10 for the whole party. You might even decide to turn the pre-destined mage into a melee fighter by selecting +strength options instead of +magic ones at level up. It's a really engaging system that offers some neat depth.
So overall it's "fine" low budget JRPG with a few mechanics that are both fresh to the genre and really interesting.
Command & Conquer Remastered: Tiberian Dawn & Red Alert - (PC) - (3.5) - RTS games should not be remastered
Spoiler
I loved these games when they first released in the mid 90's, and if I were to give them a score back then it would be much higher. Unfortunately, I just don't think that RTS games are conducive to remasters that are nothing more than graphical updates. RPGs and some other genres of games can get away with that type of remaster because the core of the game isn't necessarily the mechanics. That's not the case with RTS games though. These two games originally in 1995 & 1996, and the RTS genre made a bit of a leap forward in game play just a couple of years after that. These two remasters still feel like you're playing them on Windows 95.
Tiberian Dawn - There are just so many basic RTS mechanics that have existed for over 20 years that are not present in this game, and it's immediately noticeable. On the plus side, the graphics do look pretty good, but that is a very minor win. Also, the mission sequences just didn't feel great. Controls were often sluggish, which I imagine is another result of it staying so true to the original game. The one bright spot is the story and the cutscenes that you get in between missions. The acting and dialogue is certainly cheesy, and the story is far from great. I did find myself wanting to see what would happen next though.
Red Alert - It released a year after Tiberian Dawn, and somehow it feels worse gameplay wise. All of the above problems are true, but just worse. There are too many missions that rely on micro adjustments to your army that the game's engine is simply not good at doing. What makes matters worse is that AI pathing is beyond awful. You really need to monitor the route that your units take, and there aren't exactly great tools for keeping track of them.
I'm very happy that I can finally move this one into the completed section of my Steam library and move on to more modern iterations of the franchise
F1 25 - (PC) - (8.5) - One of the best official racing games ever
Spoiler
It's a big statement, but I have a hard time contradicting it. I was introduced to this series about 5 or 6 years ago, and I came away supremely impressed. I'm not necessarily a fan of F1 in general, but F1 19 was just simply a great racing game with a lot of depth. I was less thrilled about some of the subsequent versions, just because it didn't seem like much was added. I skipped F1 24 entirely, but decided to grab F1 25 on a recent sale. This feels like a huge leap forward in a lot of ways.
Race Weekend - One thing that I absolutely love about these games is the way that it handles race weekend and encourages you to get on the track and practice through various mini-games that offer rewards. I'll compare it to another recent release in Nascar 25 which also offers a small bonus for completing a practice objective, but that objective can be completed on lap 2 of practice and then you're done. F1 25 requires a minimum of around 10 laps to complete the various mini games, and the rewards also just feel more impactful.
Racing - It feels great. The cars are responsive, AI behavior seems good to me, and it does a good job of just making you feel connected. The latter is really driven by the interactions and race updates that your team gives you both passively as well as through optional query commands.
My Team (ie: the franchise mode) - This is where I notice the biggest improvements and where I really love this game. I liked the old "My Team" mode, but it always felt odd that you were this Owner-Driver. It's difficult to put into words, but I guess it just didn't feel authentic. In the new "My Team" you're put firmly in the position of team owner. You, as the user, still drive one of the cars but you just take the place of one of your 2 team drivers, either of which can be replaced at any time. I just really appreciated the change in the way that it made me perceive the game world. This is actually just a small part of the improvements that make me rave about the new My Team though. I had been begging for that last several years to add depth to some of the team managed aspects of this game. It all felt too linear and basic with how you would improve your car over time. Well, they've done a complete overhaul of the R&D as well as the business side of running a team. It all feels much more strategic now with many more options to pick at any given moment. This has moved it from just clicking the next item in the sequence to now requiring you to actually make decisions about the direction of your team.
Just a really fantastic game. My one complaint is the length of My Team. 10 seasons is just a really short experience, and I don't understand why they couldn't at least go to 15 or 20. In addition to this though the mode needs a rebalancing as it gets pretty crazy after just a couple of seasons once your upgrades get going.
Injustice: Gods Among Us - (PC) - (7.0) - A 4 hour experience
Spoiler
Admittedly I am not the best judge of fighting games. I'm not good at them, and I have no interest in multiplayer fights outside of couch co-op.
That being said, I feel pretty good about this score. The fighting mechanics were pretty solid and easy enough to learn. I also felt not only the differences in each hero/villain, but it also felt like I was that specific hero/villain which was cool.
The story was very good and overall well done. Definitely the highlight of the game. Also, as someone who hates Superman, I got some extra enjoyment out of him being the antagonist.
The score could have been higher, but I already gave away the lead in the tagline. The single player campaign can be completed in about 4 hours, and there is very little to do with the rest of your time unless you engage in multiplayer. Other fighting games like Mortal Kombat or Dead or Alive will offer a small story for each playable character, but Injustice only offers the single cinematic experience.So, this is a summary of the replay value. I completed the main story campaign and then uninstalled the game.
The game is a fun experience, but only worth it on a major sale (I think I got it 90% off on Steam)
Injustice 2 - (PC) - (7.5) - Injustice 1, but better
Spoiler
Basically copy & paste everything that I said about the first game, but better. Graphics are better, combat is more fluid, more Harley Quinn which is better, and the story is better. To emphasize how good the story was, I just didn't want to put the controller down. Personally, I also got more enjoyment out of the playable cast that is part of the cinematic story versus the original too.
Pretty much all of my criticisms are still there too. The main campaign can be completed in about 4 hours, and it does not have the traditional story ladder for the entire cast that other fighting games do. There is this huge roster of characters within the game, but the main campaign only gets you experience with a handful of them. So, unless you are playing multiplayer then there is little incentive to go and play with them.
I also really wish that there was more of a Mortal Kombat tie in with the game. If you only played the main story and never looked at any of the other menus then you wouldn't even know that sub-zero and other MK characters were there. It makes their existence feel like window dressing rather than a feature of the game, and it could have been a cool crossover story campaign. Maybe that can be part of Injustice 3. As much as I like the story of the first two games, I do think that it needs to go in a different direction in future titles.
Nascar 25 - (XBSX) - (1.0) - My biggest purchase regret in a couple of years
Spoiler
For me to give a 1.0 to a game then it isn't has to be an unplayable bug filled mess or it has to under deliver so massively that it is unplayable and sets the franchise/genre back years. This is a case of the latter.
I rate it so low because it's so fundamentally shallow and honestly feels like a bait-and-switch from the developer. I watched the Dev Diaries, and I fully acknowledge that they always talked a lot without every really saying anything. However, they did make several references with regard to their own experiences and influences that I think made it very reasonable to expect something other than the recent-ish relaunch of the Nascar Heat series. They mention Dirt to Daytona and the old EA Nascar games. Games that certainly had their arcade like features, but also had a lot of sim depth. In those old games you could be running great and then blow and engine and you're either out of the race or you're just running at minimum race speed to complete laps. A major wreck felt like a major wreck because cars would either be wiped out of the race or they would have clear damage on them even after a pit stop. Nascar 25 doesn't have any of that. Wrecks that should result in serious injury and require an entirely new car, you get a full reset after a short pit stop.
The social media feed is entertaining, but it's also window dressing. You can intentionally wreck the same guy in 5 straight races, and the social media comment will pretty much be the same each time. There also won't be any on-track consequences from doing such a thing because the game doesn't feature any kind of driver relationship system.
Race weekend is okay. It does technically offer you some incentive to practice and qualify. The incentives are quite shallow though, and all they really require you to do is hit specific lap times once.
Racing itself leaves a lot to be desired. AI behaivior ain't great. They are passive, and they don't really battle each other a lot. I see so many cars start and end in roughly the same place each race. The UI is bare bones, you can't even see the full grid in the pause menu. The spotter does a good job of telling you that there is a car around you, but the experience is quite soulless after experiencing any of the F1 games since 2019. Caution flags are inconsistent, and pitting under them is entirely simulated with it just fast-forwarding to the green flag restart, and you're given limited information of what the other cars did under caution (you can only see if they pitted or not, and you can only see this for the cars in the first 4 or 5 positions around you. Adding to the arcade feel, pitting has limited options. You can get fuel, choose how many tires you want, and you can decide if you want to fix any damage. Any and all other pit lane decisions that a real Nascar team would make are non-existent.
The game is sluggish in its performance at times. I experienced multiple frame drops while racing. I'm not sure if this was track specific or what the causes were. I just know that they happened more than once or twice.
Graphically the cars and tracks look fine. Though the grand stands look like something out of the PS1 or maybe even earlier console generation.
Is it a bug riddled game? Not really, but it is a game that offers little to nothing that I can point to and say "I enjoy this part of it"
Nascar Thunder 2004 - (PS2) - (8.0) - It's sad how much better PS2 era sports games were than their modern counterparts.
Spoiler
After my abysmal experience with Nascar 25, I needed to experience an actual GOOD Nascar game. I am viewing this game through the lens of it currently being 2025, not 3 hardware generations ago. So, the score above would be higher if it was still 2004. Reviewing it in 2025 is a bit of a challenge because it does show its age in some areas, but the overall package is still really good. My memory of the game was clearly more romanticized than other similar PS2 sports titles like Madden & NCAA Football (which are both deeper and play a better game of football than their modern counterparts), but I can still confidently say that I would rather spend time playing this than any Nascar game in the last 15 years.
Music: 10/10 - I'm not including as part of the overall score, but I wanted to list here it because EA really nailed the music in their sports games in that era. Every song on there was a banger.
Graphics: 5/10 - I wouldn't say that they are bad when looking at it through the lens of a game that is more than 20 years old, but obviously there have been significant graphic improvements over the last 2 decades. Not something that I care a lot about in terms of enjoyment though thankfully.
Gameplay: 7/10 - This is where I was most disappointed in my re-introduction to the game. It's clear that the game was not designed for trigger controls. Acceleration and Break are not pressure sensitive, you're all-in either way. This makes the cars handle very jerky and literally impossible to take a corner properly (as in how a REAL car would take a corner with balancing the breaking and acceleration). Certainly not the most realistic handling, but it works well enough. The AI behavior has seemed pretty solid. The AI will challenge you for position, and they won't give it up easily even if you're their "ally". Overall I like the relationship system with allies and rivals, but it's a bit too dramatic. You can spend half the race building up someone as a rival, and a small bump will turn them into a big rival. When someone does become a rival they actually want to cause you pain and will go out of there way to seriously wreck you. It's a really interesting system that would be better if they had toned down the arcade-ish of it. I do appreciate that you actually can get knocked out of a race and DNF though. That is sorely missing from recent Nascar games. I was disappointed to see how powerful the repair option was on pit road though. I don't mind it being a little arcade, but getting your car back to basically perfect condition is not what I was hoping for.
Career: 8/10 - You car customization options are fairly limited. You can make something look pretty good, but you are just so limited in even something like what number your car is. It's not bad, but it isn't a huge win either. The other elephant in the room as it relates to career is its approach to progression. Unless you're playing on easy, you're going to be straight up uncompetitive in your first season, and there will be tracks that you're just not competitive at even on the lowest difficulty. It's pretty disheartening to go into that first race at Daytona and know that you just don't have the power to keep up. Even if you try to cheese it with some whacky pit strategy and intentionally wrecking others, your car just isn't there. Outside of those two things though, career is really good. The financial system progresses at a good pace and is very rewarding. There is a lot of depth with being able to hire individual pit crew members and your R&D staff. Having to balance your different engines, chassis, and R&D efforts is very rewarding.
Presentation - The pre-race commentary is actually not that bad. It gives little headlines about some of the drivers and a brief story about the track. Post race is pretty generic, but I appreciate it enough. In-race presentation doesn't offer much other than you're spotter, but it's no worse than what Nascar 25 has, maybe better still actually due to the existence of the reputation system. You are able to see the full race grid while in the race (something I didn't think I would praise a racing game for until Nascar 25 happened), and there is a pretty detailed statistical breakdown that you can sort through.
Overall - It's more arcade than I remember, but it might as well be a real life Nascar experience for how much more realistic it is over the recent Nascar 25 or any of the recent Nascar Heat games. It offers an enjoyable enough on track experience with a lot of depth in managing your team as you build it up. It's a game that shows its age yet still delivers a fun experience.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer - (PC) - (6.0) - An okay return to a classic series
Spoiler
I only really have prior experience with this series on the Dreamcast. I don't remember which version that was, but I enjoyed it. It was a unique take on street racing, that I know some other racing games later adopted some of the mechanics, and I enjoyed the setting. All that said, it's been long enough since I played the Tokyo Xtreme series that any new game would be a very fresh experience.
To put it succinctly. I don't love it, but I also don't hate it. It seems fine for what it is, but I was somewhat disappointed. I'm not sure if I just have an overly romanticized memory of the old Dreamcast game or if this one just does not deliver, but I have had difficulty in finding motivation to keep playing through this one. I think it has to do with the grind. I'm not a stranger to grinding in games, but it just isn't very satisfying in TXR. To make a comparison, I have many complaints and criticisms around Gran Turismo 7's grind. But they are largely centered around the late game grind. TXR makes you start grinding as soon as you enter the game, and maybe that's where it is not resonating iwth me.
Currently Playing
An Assortment
Gaming goals for 2025:
Complete 8 single player games
Progress:
1 - Clair Obscur Expedition 33 - (10.0) (Apr)
2 - Clair Obscur Expedition 33 100% completion (it counts) (May)
3 - Batman Arkam Asylum - (8.0) (Sep)
4 - Command and Conquer Remastered: Tiberian Dawn (Oct)
5 - Command and Conquer Remastered: Red Alert (Oct)
6 - Injustice: Gods Among Us (Oct)
7 - Injustice 2 (Oct)
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2025 Game Release Radar:
Unexpected Purchases:
Spoiler
Stellar Blade PC
The List
Spoiler
Games I will likely Pre-order:
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition (3/18/25) - Already pre-ordered. One of my favorite RPG developers - Purchased, but need to complete earlier games.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (2025) - It's Metroid, duh - Unfortunately Nintendo got greedy
Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines (2025) -Is Paradox the worst publisher in gaming? Locking two vampire races, that are ready at launch, behind a day 1 paywall. A full price game with a $30 day 1 paywall to access one third of the available clans at launch. This game was a pre-order, day 1 buy, and a game that I would have considered buying a collectors edition for because I loved the first one. Now it's a complete pass (They did reverse course on the day 1 DLC, but the game that they released is not a RPG like the original. To steal someone else's comment, "it is Dishonored-Vampires" which is pretty far from what made the original such a classic.
Gears of War: E-Day (2025) - This looks great - Delayed
Clair Obscur Expedition 33 (2025) - To be honest this game looks amazing from the minimal information that has been shown. The lack of information is my only hesitation.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (2025) - It's Metroid, duh - Unfortunately Nintendo got greedy
Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines (2025) -Is Paradox the worst publisher in gaming? Locking two vampire races, that are ready at launch, behind a day 1 paywall. A full price game with a $30 day 1 paywall to access one third of the available clans at launch. This game was a pre-order, day 1 buy, and a game that I would have considered buying a collectors edition for because I loved the first one. Now it's a complete pass (They did reverse course on the day 1 DLC, but the game that they released is not a RPG like the original. To steal someone else's comment, "it is Dishonored-Vampires" which is pretty far from what made the original such a classic.
Gears of War: E-Day (2025) - This looks great - Delayed
Clair Obscur Expedition 33 (2025) - To be honest this game looks amazing from the minimal information that has been shown. The lack of information is my only hesitation.
Games that I'm really excited about, but I have a hint of hesitancy
Wuchang Fallen Feathers (2025) - I may not love Souls-like games, but every trailer on this one looks good - Purchased and enjoying it so far
Showa American Story (2025) - A post-apocalyptic zombie action adventure game set in America with Japanese culture? It sounds super interesting, but I have so many questions.
Fable (2025) - It's Fable, I have high expectations. - DELAYED
Tokyo Xtreme Racer (2025) - Loved playing this game on the Dreamcast. I'm curious how it will translate in a modern setting. - Purchased in September after leaving Early Access. - See Review
Nascar 25 (2025) - The way these devs talk about old games like Dirt to Daytona has me really excited. It's been nearly 20 years since I was happy with a Nascar game though. - And it will be at least 1 more year before I can change that statement after this atrocity
Showa American Story (2025) - A post-apocalyptic zombie action adventure game set in America with Japanese culture? It sounds super interesting, but I have so many questions.
Fable (2025) - It's Fable, I have high expectations. - DELAYED
Tokyo Xtreme Racer (2025) - Loved playing this game on the Dreamcast. I'm curious how it will translate in a modern setting. - Purchased in September after leaving Early Access. - See Review
Nascar 25 (2025) - The way these devs talk about old games like Dirt to Daytona has me really excited. It's been nearly 20 years since I was happy with a Nascar game though. - And it will be at least 1 more year before I can change that statement after this atrocity
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (2/4/25) - I expect it to be good, just not in a rush to buy it when I still have a long way to go in the first game. - Will revisit when it goes on sale and I have more time
Civilization 7 (2/11/25) - I generally love these games. I have some questions around some of the new mechanics, and I have other similar games that will hold me over. - Pass
Suikoden I & II HD Remaster (3/6/25) - I'm tired of re-masters, but I would be lying to say that I don't want it. - Too big of a backlog to justify buying right now
Kingmaker (Q1 25) - Pretty gimmicky, but it's hard to say no to a game that lets you use a tank in the middle ages. - Delayed .
Borderlands 4 (2025) - These zany games are usually fun, but I can always wait for a discount - Randy Pitchford told me not to buy it
Civilization 7 (2/11/25) - I generally love these games. I have some questions around some of the new mechanics, and I have other similar games that will hold me over. - Pass
Suikoden I & II HD Remaster (3/6/25) - I'm tired of re-masters, but I would be lying to say that I don't want it. - Too big of a backlog to justify buying right now
Kingmaker (Q1 25) - Pretty gimmicky, but it's hard to say no to a game that lets you use a tank in the middle ages. - Delayed .
Borderlands 4 (2025) - These zany games are usually fun, but I can always wait for a discount - Randy Pitchford told me not to buy it
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (2/21/25) - It's funny if nothing else. - Will play if it ever comes to gamepass
Kaiserpunk (2/27/25) - An interesting combination between city builder and strategy. - Will wait for a big sale
Monster Hunter Wilds (2/28/25) - Not the biggest fan of the series, but all of the gameplay does look fun - Pass due to greedy economics in a single player game
CFB 26 (July 2025) - It's on here by default, but I don't have high hopes - Purchased...see July review
Ship of Heroes (Q2 25) - I've been waiting for this City of Heroes successor for YEARS. As a MMO fan there is a good chance that I try it out. - Seems like a failure out of the box
Eternal Strands (2025) - I don't really like games with a survival mechanic, but this action rpg has a lot of interesting elements. - Tried it on gamepass, kind of mediocre
Lost Soul Aside (2025) - An RPG with modern action combat. It gives off major Final Fantasy vibes - Skipped, mainly because I have too much of a backlog
Doom: The Dark Ages (2025) - Nothing against Doom, just not a huge FPS guy anymore. This one looks cool though. - Skipped because I was busy with Expedition 33
Ghost of Yotei (2025) - I hope that it's good
Crimson Desert (2025) - I wish that combat looked more like BDO, but I'm still interested to see more. - The more I see this game, the less I want it. I hoped that it would be a single player game in the style of BDO, but it's just another slow paced souls-like.
Gothic Remake (2025) - Good call on this Picci. Completely forgot that this was in development.
Kaiserpunk (2/27/25) - An interesting combination between city builder and strategy. - Will wait for a big sale
Monster Hunter Wilds (2/28/25) - Not the biggest fan of the series, but all of the gameplay does look fun - Pass due to greedy economics in a single player game
CFB 26 (July 2025) - It's on here by default, but I don't have high hopes - Purchased...see July review
Ship of Heroes (Q2 25) - I've been waiting for this City of Heroes successor for YEARS. As a MMO fan there is a good chance that I try it out. - Seems like a failure out of the box
Eternal Strands (2025) - I don't really like games with a survival mechanic, but this action rpg has a lot of interesting elements. - Tried it on gamepass, kind of mediocre
Lost Soul Aside (2025) - An RPG with modern action combat. It gives off major Final Fantasy vibes - Skipped, mainly because I have too much of a backlog
Doom: The Dark Ages (2025) - Nothing against Doom, just not a huge FPS guy anymore. This one looks cool though. - Skipped because I was busy with Expedition 33
Ghost of Yotei (2025) - I hope that it's good
Crimson Desert (2025) - I wish that combat looked more like BDO, but I'm still interested to see more. - The more I see this game, the less I want it. I hoped that it would be a single player game in the style of BDO, but it's just another slow paced souls-like.
Gothic Remake (2025) - Good call on this Picci. Completely forgot that this was in development.
2025 Game Reviews
Spoiler
January Game Reviews:
Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle (PC) - (7.5) - Good bones on this suspense/shooter
Spoiler
Picked this one up based on a whim during the recent Steam sale. I came away pleasantly surprised. Maybe think of it as a low budget Dead Space in terms of gameplay. The story is pretty interesting, and there is plenty of suspense to get your heart rate up as you go through it. It's pretty linear though and combat is only serviceable at best. Fun enough, especially for just the few dollars that I spent on it.
Diplomacy is not an Option (PC) - (8.5) - Really fun Survival/RTS.
Spoiler
It has some humor that really throws you for a loop. Quite challenging but fun
Earthbound (Switch - Online) - (9.0) - A classic revisited.
Spoiler
Earthbound is available to play as part of the Nintendo online subscription (SNES). It's a cult classic that is considered one of the best JRPG's of the SNES era. I've played through it so many times, and it still holds up today. The story is kind of whacky, and it does not take itself seriously. There are a lot of pop culture things which get parodied in the gameplay. But it never goes so far that it becomes inane. A lot of the gameplay systems are also simplistic. Somehow it all just works though.
Madden 2007 (PS2) - (9.0) - How is a nearly 20 year old game so vastly superior to any football game currently on the market?
Spoiler
You see a noticeable difference between like a 90 overall receiver and a guy who is a 75. Dynasty depth might as well be alien technology for how far advanced it is compared to either Madden or CFB (4 coaches instead of 3, named coordinators not just the head coaches, former players eventually becoming coaches, coach stats tied to attributes instead of cheat code unlocks like the skill tree...and that's just the coaching side. I haven't talked about the Tony Bruno show, the game planning (more informative than Madden), position battles, etc...There are certainly some QOL things that Madden and CFB do better with 20 years of additional experience, but so much about the old PS2 footballs are just better.
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch) - (8.0) - What a weird experience.
Spoiler
The creators of this game also created the Xenosaga trilogy which are some of my favorite games ever. Xenoblade Chronicles (XC) was meant to be a spiritual successor to that game, and in a lot of ways XC is really good. The story is quite compelling, the characters are interesting in their own right, and the combat system has a certain flavor to it. In fact, I really like the combat system with its heavy emphasis on resource management and the unique mechanic where you can see the future. Itemization and crafting are also present enough to offer some interest there too.
There is a major 'but' though. The way that side quests are handled in XC is beyond horrible. I can't think of a strong enough word to describe how bad it is. For one, there are A LOT of them. A large percentage of them are some form of a fetch quest too, which isn't particularly interesting. As if that were not bad enough, they are implemented in a way that seems to be intentionally inconvenient to complete efficiently. Many quests have pre-requisites of either/both needing a specific quest completed and/or a certain affinity (ie: completing a bunch of quests in an area) before you can access. This means that you can't just load up on quests at once and do them as you explore passively, you have to actively go back and forth and engage with this system. Some quest givers will also only offer their missions at specific times of the day, which is yet another hoop that you have to jump through. The rewards for these quests really aren't even all that great in most cases either (which is actually a good thing as noted next).
I spent the first couple of story chapters trying to 100% the game and realized that I had spent literally like 5x-6x more time on the available side quests than I had spent engaging with the story, and I was not having fun. Finally I decided to just forget the system entirely, only pick up a couple of quests when it is convenient to do so, and the game experience increased dramatically.
The main game with its story and combat is like a 9/10. The side quests are a 0/10.
There is a major 'but' though. The way that side quests are handled in XC is beyond horrible. I can't think of a strong enough word to describe how bad it is. For one, there are A LOT of them. A large percentage of them are some form of a fetch quest too, which isn't particularly interesting. As if that were not bad enough, they are implemented in a way that seems to be intentionally inconvenient to complete efficiently. Many quests have pre-requisites of either/both needing a specific quest completed and/or a certain affinity (ie: completing a bunch of quests in an area) before you can access. This means that you can't just load up on quests at once and do them as you explore passively, you have to actively go back and forth and engage with this system. Some quest givers will also only offer their missions at specific times of the day, which is yet another hoop that you have to jump through. The rewards for these quests really aren't even all that great in most cases either (which is actually a good thing as noted next).
I spent the first couple of story chapters trying to 100% the game and realized that I had spent literally like 5x-6x more time on the available side quests than I had spent engaging with the story, and I was not having fun. Finally I decided to just forget the system entirely, only pick up a couple of quests when it is convenient to do so, and the game experience increased dramatically.
The main game with its story and combat is like a 9/10. The side quests are a 0/10.
Feb Game Reviews - None
March Game Reviews:
Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition - (PC) - (9.5) -
Spoiler
Amazing game that is criminally underrated. I played the original version years ago, and this remastered edition has not disappointed. Sleeping Dogs is maybe my favorite game in this GTA style open world genre. The story is really interesting, great characters who face moral dilemmas, and the voice acting is top notch.
Combat still holds up on this older title even in 2025. The melee combat system really sets it apart from similar games. Graphics too hold up pretty well for an older game.
Just a great game. I wish they would have continued the series.
Combat still holds up on this older title even in 2025. The melee combat system really sets it apart from similar games. Graphics too hold up pretty well for an older game.
Just a great game. I wish they would have continued the series.
OOTP 26 - (PC) - (7.0) -
Spoiler
The score here is based entirely on the fact that I played OOTP 25 (and many prior versions to that). Little has been added to OOTP 26 to make it seem worth the value, and the biggest flaw of the series to me is still very present (AI trade logic). I'd give it a 9.0 for a first time player for its deep set of features, but returning players don't have much to get excited about.
Cyberpunk 2077 - (PC) - (6.5) -
Spoiler
Meh. That words perfectly describes my thoughts on Cyberpunk. I was super hyped when it came out. Quickly became disappointed. Decided to try it again after its years of patches and reworks, and I'd still just call it meh.
The level of immersion seems substandard given what much older games achieved. The main story plays on what is in my opinion a very dumb trope and makes me feel even more disconnected from my RPG character which is further exasperated by what to me feels like a level of player agency that is less than I would hope for this style of open world RPG.
It's a game that you would have a hard time at finding something that it does poorly (allowing for the subjective nature of the main story), but it also doesn't have any place that I can point to and say "yeah that is really good".
The level of immersion seems substandard given what much older games achieved. The main story plays on what is in my opinion a very dumb trope and makes me feel even more disconnected from my RPG character which is further exasperated by what to me feels like a level of player agency that is less than I would hope for this style of open world RPG.
It's a game that you would have a hard time at finding something that it does poorly (allowing for the subjective nature of the main story), but it also doesn't have any place that I can point to and say "yeah that is really good".
April Game Reviews:
Clair Obscure Expedition 33 - (PC) - (10.0) - Incredible
Spoiler
No game will ever be perfect, but I'll reiterate some things that I said in the specific game thread. This game executes at such a high level across the board that you really have to nitpick to find flaws.
Combat is hands down the best that I have ever experienced in a RPG. I'm a sucker for the classic turn based RPG games of old like Final Fantasy (up until recent versions). I just think it fits really well with a party based system when it is implemented well. 33's turn based system would be one of the best that I have ever played even if it did not have any other mechanics. Each character has a unique skill set which makes you think about the party that you want to use, and you can make the skills synergize with each other. Each character basically has 2 different resources that you have to manage for skills and combos which just makes it really interesting and complex. What really sets 33's combat apart though is the dodge/parry system. It takes an already interesting and complex turn based system and adds an intense 'skill' system to it. It's not as punishing as a Dark Souls game, but the timing windows are still very tight. It's extremely rewarding to pull off a series of parrys that result in a big counterattack by your party.
The story is unexpected. There is always a 'save the world' trope, but this one has some unique twists. The characters are all really interesting too. The prologue sucks you into the the narrative within the first 30 minutes of gameplay where you are just like "oh my god". It also has a good bit of humor in the game, and the humor is all well placed. It's a story of grief and sacrifice, hope and hopelessness, and you're just along for the ride.
I consider music to be a feature of a RPG, and it's a great feature in Expedition 33. Some of the music hits you just as hard as anything that Nobuo Uemetsu ever produced in the Final Fantasy games. Really solid soundtrack throughout. To be completely fair and thorough, E:33's best scores are a perfect 10/10 matching up with any other individual scores from other games. I'd only rate the overall OST a 9/10 though because I don't think that it maintains that perfection throughout. Nothing is ever bad, but there is a clear difference between a boss battle and the overworld for instance. Whereas a game like Final Fantasy 8's overworld music is every bit as iconic as what you get from the biggest boss battles. It's being ultra nit-picky though (That Renoir song is musical perfection).
Exploration might be one of the weaker parts of the game, and I would still give it a very positive rating. There is not much to do on the open world map, but within each 'dungeon map' (using the term loosely), there are a lot of side passages that you can take which will reward you with additional items. I actually think that it finds a good balance of giving you reasons to go off the beaten path without being overly cumbersome. So, does it offer the best video game exploration ever? No, but it offers a really great one.
Voice acting & graphics are both stellar. I don't consider either to be core components to a game, but they do help. Expedition 33 is great at both. In fact, the voice acting is so good that I WOULD call it a core feature. The performances by all of the voice actors is perfect. There was not a single instance where I thought even the most obscure character had a cringy dialogue. The main cast all play there roles supremely well, delivering on the emotional experience that the main story also gets you with.
I'm only sad that I never again experience this game for the first. It's my favorite game of all time.
Combat is hands down the best that I have ever experienced in a RPG. I'm a sucker for the classic turn based RPG games of old like Final Fantasy (up until recent versions). I just think it fits really well with a party based system when it is implemented well. 33's turn based system would be one of the best that I have ever played even if it did not have any other mechanics. Each character has a unique skill set which makes you think about the party that you want to use, and you can make the skills synergize with each other. Each character basically has 2 different resources that you have to manage for skills and combos which just makes it really interesting and complex. What really sets 33's combat apart though is the dodge/parry system. It takes an already interesting and complex turn based system and adds an intense 'skill' system to it. It's not as punishing as a Dark Souls game, but the timing windows are still very tight. It's extremely rewarding to pull off a series of parrys that result in a big counterattack by your party.
The story is unexpected. There is always a 'save the world' trope, but this one has some unique twists. The characters are all really interesting too. The prologue sucks you into the the narrative within the first 30 minutes of gameplay where you are just like "oh my god". It also has a good bit of humor in the game, and the humor is all well placed. It's a story of grief and sacrifice, hope and hopelessness, and you're just along for the ride.
I consider music to be a feature of a RPG, and it's a great feature in Expedition 33. Some of the music hits you just as hard as anything that Nobuo Uemetsu ever produced in the Final Fantasy games. Really solid soundtrack throughout. To be completely fair and thorough, E:33's best scores are a perfect 10/10 matching up with any other individual scores from other games. I'd only rate the overall OST a 9/10 though because I don't think that it maintains that perfection throughout. Nothing is ever bad, but there is a clear difference between a boss battle and the overworld for instance. Whereas a game like Final Fantasy 8's overworld music is every bit as iconic as what you get from the biggest boss battles. It's being ultra nit-picky though (That Renoir song is musical perfection).
Exploration might be one of the weaker parts of the game, and I would still give it a very positive rating. There is not much to do on the open world map, but within each 'dungeon map' (using the term loosely), there are a lot of side passages that you can take which will reward you with additional items. I actually think that it finds a good balance of giving you reasons to go off the beaten path without being overly cumbersome. So, does it offer the best video game exploration ever? No, but it offers a really great one.
Voice acting & graphics are both stellar. I don't consider either to be core components to a game, but they do help. Expedition 33 is great at both. In fact, the voice acting is so good that I WOULD call it a core feature. The performances by all of the voice actors is perfect. There was not a single instance where I thought even the most obscure character had a cringy dialogue. The main cast all play there roles supremely well, delivering on the emotional experience that the main story also gets you with.
I'm only sad that I never again experience this game for the first. It's my favorite game of all time.
June Game Reviews:
Stellar Blade - (PC) - (8.5) - Solid across the board
Spoiler
Just a really solid game. Combat plays fast which is something that I appreciate. There is a pretty good character progression system which offers lots of different skills. The game is challenging without being overly punishing. It also runs fantastic on PC which is something that you don't always get with ports.
Honestly hard to find anything to criticize the game for. It's just kind of solid throughout
July Game Reviews
EA CFB 26 - (XB1) - (6.5) - 2 small steps forward, 1 step back
Spoiler
I'm sure this will be considered a hot take, but I don't think that CFB26 is a very good game. This is going to be a long review because it's a game that I really WANT to like.
I do think that it is better than CFB 25 (at least in some of the ways that I care about), but I was even more critical of CFB 25. The series exists as the only modern college football games available to us in 2025, and they are the first games of their kind in over a decade. This gives them quite a free pass (I waited a month and a half before reviewing the game last year because I wanted to give it so many chances) and imo it creates a lot of scenarios where people view the current series with rose-tinted-glasses. I do hope that some things improve with patches, but I don't think it's unfair to review a game that has been out for over 2 weeks now.
EA clearly took the approach of refinement rather than evolution for the 2nd iteration of this series' return. I don't think that this was too surprising, and we do see some good things that come from this refinement. Formation subs have been added and there are numerous QoL additions to the dynasty hub like being able to access a player's card from any screen. It's a small thing, but one of my biggest complaints in last year's game was that it gave me no reason to spend time in the dynasty hub. Arguably it actively dissuaded me from spending time there due to how inconvenient certain menus were and what kind of information was available in others. So kudos for cleaning up some of those things, and that is where I think the game has seen the most improvement. However, I think it's also a far stretch from actually being good in this arena. Matchup previews at the play week screen still default to team ratings rather than team stats (even though the later is an available feature seen in the post season). We don't have certain team historical stats like we had way back in NCAA 14, and some menus are still quite inconvenient to navigate. So, while the dynasty hub has improved it is still a relatively shallow experience.
Some of the presentation aspects are improved too. My first game I saw a graphic for "keys to the game" during the pre-game. This was something that we had in much older versions of the game (I don't recall it being in CFB 25). Unfortunately it is inconsistently applied to the experience though. It popped up in my first 2 games at launch, but I've only seen it sporadically since then. I don't understand why this would not just be a staple for every pre-game. I have also found that the in-game commentary is generally more accurate than last year. It still has its moments, but I have far fewer instances of thinking that the commentary is just factually wrong.
The transfer portal is much more impactful this year too which was another one of my huge complaints last year. Roster turnover wasn't a thing at all in CFB 25 (outside of guys graduating), and so I really like that I now have to manage playing time of my roster. Playing Style is still kind of a broken aspect of the system though due to how certain aspects of the game function. I like the idea of location based recruiting. I think that is a huge plus for the mini-game that is recruiting. It's kind of offset by just how easy it is to recruit though, and I think it has some unintended consequences for those seeking a simulation experience too.
We also got a whole bunch of new sliders to give us more ways to customize our experience. I consider this a huge plus. There were also some gameplay enhancements like the new blocking schemes that I think are a net positive.
Lastly the addition of real coaches does bring a little more connection to the game world and the real world. The coaching system in general is also improved imo with how some things were rebalanced. I still hate the system in general though as it forces arcade style power ups inside of linear skill trees that have more sim-like powerups later on down the skill tree.
I mention a lot of positives here, but I also mention a lot where the execution didn't fully deliver. This is the general theme of my experience with the game.
Last year I said "If the game play is an 8/10 then everything else is 2/10". I focus a lot on the "everything else" above that is improved, but I think the gameplay has taken a noticeable step back.
Gameplay and Penalty sliders have little to no effect, whereas they did feel more impactful a year ago. Penalties in general seem to be turned down (despite the in-game help box noting that sliders at 50 are based on real world data). RoboQB is in a state that is as bad as it has ever been for the entirety of EA's college football game franchise. LB's now attack the run gaps with impunity. Now, I actually do like this from a gameplay standpoint, it makes running the ball actually have some challenge. But it's not ratings based at all. A 60 ovr and a 90ovr linebacker will attack the run in the exact same way, which brings little variety to the game-to-game experience.
The halftime show is still terrible and not worth watching. Focus players in the pre-game have their overalls listed instead of their stats, yet another instance where I struggle to see this as an acceptable state of a full price game that didn't offer much in the way of big feature improvements from the prior year.
HFA is still implemented in such a way that is completely asinine in how it creates incorrect play art for your team. Make it hard to audible, increase the chances of false starts or even delays for your Oline at the snap. I'm even okay with some level of stat penalty for composure loss. Home Field in the real world because of how it impacts your ability to communicate at the line of scrimmage, and sometimes even just getting the play in at the huddle. It does not make players suddenly forget what play was called 2 seconds earlier in the huddle though. So, seeing the play art for a run play when I called a pass, just because the stadium is loud, is absurd. Not only is that not a simulation experience, it doesn't even follow the design philosophy of any other parts of the game (including HFA) because it's the only feature that can be 100% overcome by "skill" (in this case, memorizing your playbook). This aspect of HFA needs to be completely removed or at minimum a customization option offered. I actually like the challenge that HFA brings to the the table with the other things that it does (which are life-like), but I would rather not have the feature at all than to have incorrect play-art.
The introduction of career wear & tear may indicate that their heart was in the right place in adding nuance to your roster decisions, but it's both poorly executed and the career W/T pool makes little sense from a sim perspective. 18 and 22 years should not be worn down by the grind of their short college careers. This would absolutely make sense in a Madden game where guys have already played their college careers and go on to play another 10 in the NFL (hitting 30 years old and later), but not for a college game.
This only played a minor part in my overall view of the game since I am a 99% dynasty player, but RTG is terrible. I don't know how they heard feedback of "we want high school games like we had a decade ago" and implemented a series of 4 scenarios per game where you are only graded on whether or not you perform specific challenges.
Going back to my separate rating scale from a year ago. As of right now I'd give the Gameplay about a 6/10 and "everything else" about a 5/10. Which comes in a little shy of the 6.5 overall score, but I do give it a bonus for being the only college football game in existence right now.
I'm still playing it because I love college football, and even a mediocre college football game will provide me with entertainment. I don't play it for hours at a time like I used to in years past though.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers - (PC) - (8.0) - A good challenge
Spoiler
Maybe I like these types of games more than I think. I like Stellar Blade and I loved the old Ninja Gaiden games. But I do struggle to embrace the concept of "difficulty is a feature" in video games. But I once again finding myself enjoying one of these games.
Wuchang has a few things going for it. The environment and general atmosphere are hugely appealing. Now, I am biased as I do generally like East Asian aesthetics, but for people who whare my interest then I think you will find that it offers a solid atmosphere.
The game is challenging, borderline punishing. The sparse places to save your game can be frustrating, but I do find the overall challenge to be just under that threshold where it would make me rage-quit when I die and have to start back from the last shrine. It nails the balance there imo.
There are some interesting mechanics combat and death. Death can be rewarding or it can be extremely punishing. I think people's take on this will largely depend on their skill level. I don't think that I am particularly good at these games, but after about an hour of learning the game I rarely died anymore.
As a PC player I also benefit from having a pretty powerful PC. Most of the negative Steam reviews seem to be around performance, with console players generally like the game more since its better optimized there.
I rate it just a half step behind Stellar Blade since it is definitely more punishing and forces a slower pace of combat. It isn't so slow that it feels like you're just bogged down though, and I think it's just a solid experience across the board.
August Game Reviews:
Madden 26 - (XB1) - (7.5) - Best Madden in years, but it's still Madden
Spoiler
The first Madden that I have pre-ordered in a long time after some really exciting pre-release announcements, and I have to say I don't totally regret that decision.
For the Pros:
-The new coaching system is really interesting and a huge step in the right direction. I love the idea around gameplan loadouts as they do provide somewhat of a simulation experience since. By that I mean, you don't have a full skill tree of passives that are active at all times, the loadout system can be seen as simulating real weekly gameplanning.
-I love the new heavy snow & rain. I've wanted extreme weather in football games for so long, and I am happy that it's finally here. I do think that the default impacts are a little over stated, but I can live with that since we do have the sliders
-The new half-time show and weekly presentation are massive improvements over what Madden has had for 2 console generations now. They are actually interesting to watch and worth paying attention to.
-I think aspects of the running/passing game and defense all feel better in this year's game.
-The commentators are less horrible than they were in last year's game.
Now for the Cons:
-The downloadable draft class (and other downloadable sections) UI is beyond atrocious. It's only slightly more user friendly than what NCAA Football on the PS3 had when you had to type out a user's name to get a roster. I can not fathom why someone actively went to this UI last year and again this year when they had a functional system before. This is a major con because one of the major features that Madden has added to their franchise depth in the last 15 years is downloadable draft classes, and the current roster share system is almost unusable.
-The commentators are less horrible, but that only means that they are tolerable enough to only mute every other game.
-Aspects of gameplay feel better, but there are still some glaring issues. RoboQB is alive and well, just like in CFB26. Even though it's technically possible to get realistic completion percentages with heavy slider adjustments, the core gameplay issue is still there. Just like in CFB26, it's treating the symptom of high completion percentage, but the perfect accuracy still impacts the game in other ways and that can't be fixed with sliders.
-Penalties...where are they? EA's own in-game note states outright that the default penalty slider at 50 should reflect real world data. I haven't seen a pass interference yet, only a couple of false starts and like 3 holds.
-Team relocation is very stale. They clearly haven't put any resources into this in several years, choosing instead to rely on teambuilder. I get the appeal of teambuilder, but I'd rather have some curated options with game focused presentation elements (if you pick to relocate or use a teambuilder team then the overall presentation package is of a little less quality as it doesn't know how to deal with custom names and such which to me provides a diminished experience).
-For the love of god EA. Let us see the coin toss in the pregame in your football games!
-The scouting system that Madden implemented a few years ago is still terrible. It's a system that I actively avoid and do not engage in, even though I want the sim experience. It's terrible, and I seriously question the people who designed and authorized it.
The game has improvements, but it also just has so many legacy issues which limit its overall potential
September Game Reviews
Batman: Arkham Asylum - (PC) - (8.0) - Just a solid game
Spoiler
Even though it is not a long game, it took me about 5 years to complete. I enjoyed every gaming session with it, but these stealth type games are also just not my cup of tea. Still, I recognize it for being really solid throughout.
The story was probably the weakest part of the game to me. It was a neat idea, but I just had a hard time connecting to the idea that all of these super villains, contained to the island, was something that only Batman could handle.
Gameplay was solid. The stealth mechanics worked great, and it was fun moving around as batman. Outside of stealth, the combat plays out like a pretty average beat-em-up which wasn't thrilling, but it also wasn't bad.
My overall enjoyment of the game was probably less than the overall score that I gave it, but I am giving it a boost as I recognize that the stealth genre is not my favorite. Nothing really stands out about the game as being really great, but
Diablo 4 - (PC) - (7.5) - An update
Spoiler
I was very critical of this game post launch and again when the new expansion dropped last year. I'm going to highlight some of the key components of D$'s life cycle and where it has improved (if at all)
The Leveling Experience - It's awful. Each new season brings a need to go through the leveling process again. This would be fine were it not for the fact that D4's leveling is so bad. It's objectively not rewarding, and I don't think that many people even find it fun. You can argue that this part of the game isn't supposed to be particularly rewarding, but they drag it out too much. When a new season would launch in Diablo 3, a skilled gamer could hit max level and start farming paragon after about an hour. A semi-hardcore could get there in about 3 hours, and a complete casual could get there in about 6. All of those values are about 3x in Diablo 4, which isn't a great thing. This made especially true when you want to go through and create your 2nd and 3rd characters in a season. In Diablo 3, that game allowed you to instantly boost your characters power with your accumulated paragon. In D4, you can't use your paragon until level 60 so you're just starting from scratch. If you have a friend to PL you then you can get back to 60 in about 30 minutes to and hour (depending on how strong your friend is), but if you go it solo then you're going to go through the motions at almost the same speed as your first character.
Item drops - Diablo is a game where item drops and low chance RNG is basically feature. The game really takes it to the extreme though. I think that Mythic items drop slightly more frequently than they used to but the drop rates are still way too low. Rune drops are criminally low on the RNG scale (which also compounds the problems with the Mythic drops due to how the crafting works in Diablo). By the time that you hit around paragon 150, you're likely to go a very long time without any equipment upgrades. Considering that the game is about grinding out progression and new armor, then doesn't feel great to go long stretches with almost imperceptible improvement.
Monetization - The microtransactions are all cosmetic which is nice that it is not p2w. But the cosmetics are quite expensive, and the game really doesn't offer much for cool cosmetic without paying real money. It's a minor thing in the grand scheme, but it would be nice if buy 2 play players had a little more customization in how their character looks.
QoL - There are massive improvements here. For most of the game's existence, each season has only featured a handful of classes that could really tackle the true endgame. In season 10 it looks like we have more meta options than ever to play around with which is great. The biggest QoL change was the one made to Lair Bosses. To put it plainly, Lair Bosses were inanely implenented in Diablo 4. They wanted to have mechanics and stages like a MO without understanding the way that a ARPG is played. In season 10, they finally made it so that you can DPS through a boss before any of their stages take shape. This is a massive win.
Improved Endgame Activities - They have done a lot over the last 2 seasons to really expand what you should be doing at the endgame. For the most part this still revolves around lair bosses, but they have at least closed the gap with some of the other activities. The lack of a leaderboard for pit pushes is still an odd choice and it's one thing that limits its current potential, but at least the endgame is improving.
It has plenty of things that it can improve on, but I can finally say that D4 is a worthwhile game.
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