Writing for the steam awards review badge, will update later. The Zombies mode is still incredibly fun with friends ^_^

It's Pizza Time! High five like its Turtles in Time in the old arcade days. So many quarters man...this is short but it's very fun for co-op so grab some friends :)

Hop over this, slide under that, maybe don’t grab that electric fence again and definitely look before you leap because faith alone won’t be enough to survive this Matrix styled rooftop romp to rescue your sister before she is taken downtown for a crime she didn’t commit. Smash through windows, crawl through vents and disarm enemies along the way on Faith’s search for the truth. Seeing red is quite literal in this case in fact you are actually looking for it as it lights your path. Keep your allies close while you race to discover what revealing secrets lie at the top of the shard.

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Mirror’s Edge is a different kind of game from the style EA usually puts out. You play as Faith who is able to wall run and hop or slide her way through the city as a runner to transport things discreetly. She is trying to solve a crime that her sister has been framed for and she is racing against time itself to save her.

The game itself feels a lot like a first person Enter the Matrix game minus most of the fighting. As a runner Faith primarily uses hand to hand combat and she can use guns if she disarms an enemy but the majority of the game is focused on speedrunning and it is usually in your best interests to avoid fighting unless you really have to. On consoles there was even a trophy for finishing the game without using any weapons.

Playing through the game in first person view definitely makes it rather interesting. You can look around for objects in red to help guide you to where you need to go but the game can also be incredibly picky, if you don’t do it in exactly the way it wants you to do it you will miss and have to keep repeating it until you figure out the way that they expect you to do it. Luckily the game is rather forgiving and if you miss a jump you won’t have to retrace your steps too far.

It is a very interesting game with a beautiful artistic style. The game isn’t all that long, but it does have a variety of different levels ranging from rooftops to underground sewers and unfinished construction sites to explore. Some of the later levels can be challenging because the enemies are heavily armored with machine guns and Faith dies in a couple of hits. The part with the server room on the final level was particularly frustrating. On the harder difficulty they don’t give you any help at all. You basically have to figure out how to navigate it by yourself without the red hints but if you have already played the game before then this shouldn’t be too complicated as you already will be familiar with how the gameplay works.

This was one of the first games to showcase PhysX technology which was designed with a separate card dedicated to just physics in mind. Since then Nvidia integrated the technology into basically every geforce card and now you can run it without needing any additional hardware. I’ll admit it adds rather neat effects (like flapping tarpaulins in the wind as you are running on scaffolding or glass shards that shatter when you break a window). It had a big hit on performance with video cards when it was released (7800/8800 GTX) era but now a modern gpu should have no problems with it. The differences are rather subtle but it is pretty cool when it’s enabled it adds more realistic effects to certain things.

Overall I had a fun time with this game and once you have understood how the parkour style works it can be pretty rewarding as you focus more on the flow and learning how to keep the momentum going. It is a rather unique kind of experience. It's hard to compare this to other games as I don’t really know what to compare it to. There is a sequel to this that was built with the newer Frostbite engine and is similar but much prettier, it’s called Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. I do recommend this if you are looking for a game that is different from the usual RPG or FPS shooters and is more about fast thinking and intuition then this definitely might be of interest.

The boys are back in town but…Dante's down for the count, Nero's handicapped, and a random tattooed dude with a cane appears as a demon king sits upon the bloody throne so who you gonna call? (It’s Nico btw) Dante’s past returns to haunt him from beyond the grave and back from hell. Swords through the chest, and various mysteries revealed. Try not to get too distracted by Dante moonwalking as you join Phantom Pain Nero and Goth Kylo Ren on a punch drunk journey to find out how Nero got his groove back.

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For a little while there I was nervous when they handed over the Devil May Cry franchise to Team Ninja with the DMC reboot, but fortunately DMC5 is a proper sequel and sees the return of all the familiar faces from DMC3 and DMC4. The game takes place after DMC4, with a powerful demon building a tree from hell. The story centers on Nero and a brand new character V who hired Dante to take out the demon. Dante and his pals went up against the demon Urizen and lost so it's basically up to Nero to save the day. V is a very different kind of character from Dante and Nero no physical attacks he is more of a druidic base he doesn't attack anyone himself but he has animals which he summons to fight for him Pokemon style.

Hopefully you came to terms with Nero in DMC4 because you spend a huge portion of the game playing him, in much the same way half of DMC4 was Nero the same can almost be said for DMC5. Sometimes the level will let you pick who you want to play as but it doesn't affect the story it's more like 3 different pieces of the same pizza. Nero has lost his demonic arm so he is rather handicapped but Capcom added interchangeable metal arms that Nero can use which have different powers and abilities (much like Big Boss in MGSV). You find them scattered around the levels or you can buy them from Nico in the shop inbetween levels. The arms will usually break after a few uses but they are very fun to play with and can make certain areas a lot easier. Fundamentally the game has a very similar design to DMC4 and that works for me since I loved DMC4. It is like DMC4 but newer and prettier. There is a new super demon mode but Dante controls more or less the same way he did in DMC4.

There are phone booths in all of the levels that you can use to summon Nico and the portable shop if you want to buy stuff during the levels you don't really go to the statues like you did in older DMC games (although there still are a few of them here and there). They added in hookshot style waypoints that remind me a lot of the DMC Team Ninja level design. There are still the red skull gems which you can collect to expand your health bar, the purple gems to expand your magic demon bar, and golden orbs which will revive you on the spot if you die. And naturally there are lots of skills to buy for each of the characters and individual weapons. The secret levels are back too on each level there is a hidden challenge that rewards you with a gem and the bloody palace makes a return too.

The thing that I'd say bugged me the most about this game is the enemy lock on system. Instead of staying locked onto the same enemy it would only stay locked on for as long as you were holding down the lock on button. This made it really tricky to try and chain combos together since you constantly had to hold down one of the bumpers to lock on and also at the same time try and put the buttons in for the combo and at the same time aim at the same enemy. It would have been a lot easier if they had just made it so that it remained locked on to whatever enemy you picked.

Honestly I'm having trouble coming up with bad things to say about DMC5 I was definitely worried they would have changed the formula a lot since the last DMC game was nearly a decade ago but they took everything that worked from DMC4 and pretty much improved on it. The metal arms might be a hit or miss depending on the crowd. They are cool in theory but in practice you don't really end up using them as much as they might think you would. I really missed Nero's demonic arm but that is related to the story and it was a neat idea to add into the mechanics. Another complaint might be once again Dante is missing for the first half of the game but at least it was properly explained this time you see in the first 20 minutes why Dante isn't available until later on.

The DLC felt kind of added on last minute, I was really happy to see the character they introduced but they barely added any more story only a cutscene or two and the rest of the levels are basically identical to Nero/Dante's it's just you aren't playing as them you are playing as someone else.

Although they copied a similar formula as the one for DMC4 I really had a blast with this game. They brought everything I loved about DMC4 back and added on even more stuff. And they also brought back a fan favorite villain who hasn't really been seen much since DMC3. If you liked the rest of the series I'd recommend this one since I had a lot of fun with it.

Grab 3 buddies and get ready to yell tank again like its 2009 y'all

Oh Rats! No I'm serious actually...and bats as well. Just like a bat out of hell Dracula has furry friends in both low and high places. Awaken from an extremely long eternal night and find some nice necks to chomp on. Whip your blood back and forth (Whip it real good). Explore Dracula's back to the future adventure. Talk about a miserable pile of secrets. You are the prince of darkness! The dragon Dracul! What a terrible night to have a curse.


This is the direct sequel to Lords of Shadow 1, which was one of my favorite Castlevania games. It feels like you are playing a medieval version of God of War. If you liked the GBA/DS SoTN style Metroidvania ones you might not enjoy this one.

Honestly this was nothing like I expected it would be after Lords of Shadow 1. The first LoS felt a lot more like a classic Castlevania game with faeries and werewolves, wargs and spiders. Dracula wasn't the endgame boss though so it wasn't exactly a normal Castlevania. It was more like Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in that it was an origin story of sorts. Lords of Shadow 2 was pretty different. It felt much more like Legacy of Kain Blood Omen 2 or Defiance or Soul Reaver than it did Castlevania or Lords of Shadow 1. It plays like Lords of Shadow but the story and atmosphere feel very much like a Legacy of Kain game (I love Legacy of Kain so I don't mind it at all).

You awaken as Dracula after many centuries of a dirt nap in your coffin. If you like me were hoping for an explanation as to what happened between the end of LoS1 and the start of LoS2 you will unfortunately be disappointed as very little in the way of explanations given. They do briefly touch upon it but it's a very brief description of what happened in the centuries between the last game and this one. Barely any info at all is given as to how Dracula became what he now is. The only real explanation we have is from the DLC that was in LoS1 Reverie, and a minute or two here and there as flashbacks in this one. Actually Mirror of Fate HD helps bridge the gap a lot more than LoS2 does but you are kind of left to piece it all together by yourself. Seems he went off the deep end after the end of LoS1 and hid himself away in his castle for eternity. In doing so he slowly lost all of his humanity and hope and out of hatred and spite and misery became Dracula.

It is an open world game that takes place in a huge city built on the foundations of Dracula's ancient castle. The city is split into 3 or 4 big areas that you explore throughout the course of the story and you can free roam and explore them as you wish, there are many secrets that have been scattered around the map. Much like Lords of Shadow 1 you find gems that upgrade your health and magic powers. There are items that restore health, give you temporary unlimited magic, slow down your enemies, there is even a pendant that instantly kills all enemies on screen. There are sacrificial fountains that grant Kleidos gems which unlock hidden challenges accessible from the chupacabra shop. There are scrolls as well like the previous game that add history and lore to the series and help fill in the gaps between the prologue and when Dracula later awakens. There is a handy item called the Dodo Egg which will help you locate hidden items which was really helpful in finding the hidden items.

As for weapons and abilities, most of the things you had in LoS1 make a comeback, but you sort of have the "dark" version of them you could say. The vampire killer has been replaced by a whip made of pure blood, and there is the void sword which replaces the "light" power that has ice powers and heals upon hit. On the "fury/dark" power you still have the fists of fury that do massive damage and break enemy shields. While you initially buy the skills and powers for each weapon with points you have to use the skills in order to gain XP for them and level up the weapon. As far as I can tell the additional levels don't unlock any new abilities but the level 3 does look pretty sweet.

The epic boss fights make a return and you also get to explore Dracula's castle and find out more about his past and learn a little more about his son Trevor (who also makes an appearance he has white hair you probably know who it is, he is in the Castlevania anime too). Basically it's a fun open world romp where you get to be Dracula and rain down death and destruction on...pretty much everything.

Tear heads off priests, chop up demons with a sword of pure energy and blow holes through Mars with the biggest gun in the universe. Duke Nukem would be proud. Size definitely matters as VEGA has already calculated all possible alternatives. Revisit old monuments to glory seeking answers, make new nemeses while exploring new places, and ruin civilizations on the high road to vengeance. Toss Hayden through portals while making Marauders smolder. Mister Torgue is already sniffing with pride. Stuff grenades into Cacodemons, fist-bump demon bobble-heads and fight in ancient coliseums while prancing around in a unicorn suit. Rip and tear until it is done and look absolutely fabulous while doing it!

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What happened to Earth, what's up with the floating fortress in space, what happened to the slayer at the end of the last Doom game when Hayden sent him back to hell? What happened to Hayden, why is he missing? So many questions and very few answers. Quite literally hell on earth. You get to witness the doom marine's backstory and understand a bit of what happened to him and how he became the slayer.

The gameplay is almost exactly the same as the last Doom game, but they have tweaked a lot of things and made some subtle changes here and there. The demons show increased wounds and damage as they are hurt for example, and the slayer now has two weapons that are built into the armor (the flame thrower and the grenade launcher) and a chainsaw. Ammo is a lot scarcer for all of the weapons which feels deliberate to force you to use the new chainsaw. There are also a lot more enemies than there were in the last Doom, and harder as well. Enemies that would have been considered bosses (or mini-bosses at the very least) in previous games are now standard enemies.

Because of the reduced amount of ammo and increased enemies the game feels a lot more fast paced. You have to react more quickly and think more carefully. The last Doom felt more balanced and more well spread out whereas Doom Eternal has more of an arcade feel where you are constantly on the move constantly trying to find ammo and health.You can't explore as much as you might want to but there is a quick travel at the end of each level to revisit areas.

The upgrades to the armor are still there, and they have added some new things to the ring. They have also added sentinel crystals which give you upgrades to both your armor and your abilities depending on which you pick. Just like other Doom games there are secret areas and there are collectable bobble-head dolls you find which are displayed on a wall inside your Space Fortress. They have added gun skins, and you now have different unlockable armors for single player.

While I have very good things to say about the single player, unfortunately I don’t really have very good things to say about the multiplayer. It is completely different from Doom 2016 which I really enjoyed. This one instead is extremely limited. There is only one mode you can play and very few maps. There’s almost nothing to unlock and no progression, only the events which you also get XP for by playing the single player campaign.

The first of the two DLC expansions was pretty hard, there are a lot more enemies than there were in the base game and you’ve lost one of your most powerful weapons. The enclosed spaces make it more difficult too. The second DLC was more balanced and they added a substitute weapon to make up for the one taken away at the end of the main game. At 6 extra levels the two DLC’s are quite decent actually but it feels like they rushed it to tie up the ending.

Overall I had a really fun time with this, it was a lot faster paced than Doom 2016 but they kept all of the things that I loved about 2016 and added some neat new things on top of it. I would highly recommend Doom Eternal for the single player/campaign part, but I don't recommend the multiplayer part since they changed it too much and it’s honestly rather lacking.

Borderlands is back, with more guns, more loot, more legendaries, and now...introducing butt stallion!

Grab 3 buddies and have a blast shooting up skags, psychos and whatever else walks in front of your trigger. This takes everything from borderlands 1 and just makes it bigger and better. Plus there is some fun DLC for any season you fancy. I had a blast playing this game with my friends and i'd recommend it to anyone who wants a fun 4 player co-op shooter. It can get rather grindy so heads up...

Be a badass with Mister Torgue and go make it RAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!

This is a really fun romp set in an alternate timeline starring dual gun totting Terror Billy blasting his way through the Nazi army. Until Doom 2016 came out I had a hard time thinking of a game I'd had this much fun with. It might be a bit on the shorter end but if you like FPS this is a pretty fun package.

Grab your furry puppers and head out once again into the wasteland that the original Vault Dweller, visiting locations both old and new. More everything! More guns, more bottlecaps, San Francisco, and the Power Armor Mk II. There are brand new towns to adventure into as well as new characters to get into fights with over an awkward conversation. Go boxing, drive around the desert, go gambling in Reno, and lots of interesting new places to explore. Attempt to open that lock 40 times in a row until it either opens or you jam the lock! And beware the jaberwocky...also known as Deathclaws.

Check out my full review here:

https://mythoszephon.wordpress.com/2018/02/26/fallout-2-overview/