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SCARLET NEXUS- PS5 (Kasane's Story)

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So I have a love/ hate relationship with this game. On the one hand, I love JRPGs. On the other hand, I hate games that increase challenge by simply heaping on bigger numbers of enemies. I have noticed that many of the so-called “big budget, triple-A titles” do this these days (although many also do not, so there is still hope). At the start of the game you can select Kasane’s (girl) story or Yuito’s (boy) story. I will say that I won’t be getting into Yuito’s story anytime soon, as I will explain. But onward and upward. So I will start with what I liked about the game. Beautiful eye-candy graphics- this game is gorgeous, and is very much like “playing an anime”. A good modern JRPG should do this. The game also handles quite well, although it makes use of every button. It IS a complicated layout, but as the player makes their way through the game, it becomes more intuitive. The enemies are creative as well. Called “Others”, they are basically abominations that are combinations of human...
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JUDGEMENT- PS5 (SEGA)

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Judgement- PS5 I was (and still am) a huge fan of Shenmue, ever since I got it on the Dreamcast all those years ago. Making my way around the sandbox world was so intense to me, interacting with almost everyone and nipping away at the story until completion.   Over twenty years later I find myself playing Judgement, another SEGA game with very similar elements, as well as striking differences, but still just as fun. There is a mystery to be solved, and your character, Yagami Takayugi, is the detective doing the job. As well, this character is a lawyer… who has allegiances to the Yakuza. The characters in his midst are a strange mix of law enforcement (both straight and corrupt), other lawyers, Yakuza families, and just plain thugs. A deep story surrounding a drug developed by a pharmaceutical company to cure dementia, that includes plots, murders, and the like. So, obviously there will be action. Lots of fighting in the streets. This is one of the things about the game I didn’t lik...
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The Foibles of the Hard Core Gamer (or, The Rise and Fall of the Elite Gamer)

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Edited by C. Marie   In the beginning, there were only video games and the people who played them. There  were no cliques or clubs. There were no “hard core”, “core”, or “casual” gamers,  no “hard-core” or “casual” games. In those days there was Defender and Stargate (Defender's  sequel)--these games were done with a stick and a bunch of buttons. They were also the closest thing to "hard core" games available at the time.  Most everything else had fewer and  simpler controls. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong,  Galaga... all hugely popular games. But there were no attitudes. There weren’t elite squads of  gamers trying to establish themselves as “real” gamers while everyone else was  somehow lower on the food chain. Back in those early days, arcades were King. Home consoles in the early  1980s were extremely popular; fun, yes, but also technically limited. Atari dragged the industry into a kind  of dormant state with their mediocre game catalog....
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OBSERVER- XBOX One Version

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All the LSD in the WORLD… Today I finished two things. I finished reading Philip Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” As well, I finished the Bloober and Aspyr Media’s game, “Observer”. You see, I have been on this “Cyberpunk” kick. I’m sure you get that. I also have been reading reviews of “Blade Runner” and how it compares to Dick’s “Electric Sheep” book, and I know the two stories share some of the same names, but are, for the most part, completely different stories. Observer stars the voice acting of the late Rutger Hauer, who sadly passed on in 2019, the same year this game was made. In the game, Daniel Lazarski is the main character for whom Hauer provides the voice. Lazarski is an “Observer” (a kind of Cyberpunk cop, laden with implants giving him scanning and computing capabilities far beyond those of normal smart-phone savvy humans), working in Krakow, Poland in the year 2084. Now, despite in-game posters and signs being all Polish (with subtitles), everyone s...
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Shenmue III Review- PS4

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I have loved the living hell out of Shenmue since day one. This is because I have PLAYED the living hell out of Shenmue since day one. This is the game franchise that made me like action RPGs. Before Shenmue, text speech was all there was, and the accompanying graphics, well, were 8-bit chibi. Shenmue introduced a style where many or most of the virtual folks you met along your way had at least SOMETHING to say. And they said it. With real voices. It brought a realism to the genre, a quantum leap. Money was spent as well as time. And gold was spun. Shenmue 3 has to be held in comparison with Shenmue 1 and 2, as well as a ghostly sense of what 3 SHOULD be with modern technology and techniques. Being the fan that I am, I think it falls short. Just a bit. Don’t hate me. There is NO reason why EVERY time I go back to a fortune teller, or sales person, or ANYONE like that, that they should begin anew explaining who they are and what they do, and what may result. NONE....
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Astro Bot Rescue Mission VR

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Nintendo, in my mind, has always been the master of platforming hop-and-bop style games (although I would put Sega at a very, very close #2). Sony has had a winner with Little Big Planet, but the company wasn’t around early enough to establish much else. Side-scrolling platformers/action/adventure games have made a comeback in recent years. Nothing on the level of Mario or the original Sonic games, to be sure. And as far as 3-D platforming, Nintendo rules the roost. But wait. Here comes Astro Bot Rescue Mission. A 3-D platformer for sure, in fact better than mere 3-D, it is a Virtual Reality experience that really delivers. It has all of the action, all of the smooth control you want and NEED in this kind of game, and something else required in this genre: a completely LOVABLE, ADORABLE little character that is a JOY to control. The little robot is comical; when under heavy fire from even the most vicious of bosses, upon pause he will look at you, make a happy lit...
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NIER AUTOMATA (2B Walkthrough)

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Ridiculous Boss Battles. Brilliant Graphics, decent gameplay, and genres flashed before your eyes spanning the entire video game history. Shooter. Bullet-hell shooter. Side-scrolling Platformer. 3-D Platformer. Adventure Game. Fullblown Single-Player JRPG. Hardcore, from start to finish. Damned bosses that piss you off, and make you want to throw your controller across the room. Then your monitor. Why? Because you try and try and TRY. And you fail and fail and FAIL. BUT… this is a mark of a GREAT game. I wanted to see what happened NEXT. No matter how much of a PRICK (and they WERE PRICKS) the bosses were, I NEEDED to see the next thing. The story was too important. The emotional attachment that forms between the player and this game; between the player and these characters- is SERIOUSLY intense. DESPITE the fact that they are androids. I am OLD. My skills aren’t what they used to be. (They are still quite good, kiddies.) But my determination still IS good. A...
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