Recent reviews by Banshee

KH1 consistently crashes every 1-2 hours of gameplay during area loads. I'll change my review if they fix it, otherwise this port is a bit rough. It's not a game with autosaves, which makes this even worse as the crashes can frequently cause progress loss.

Halo CE is by far my favorite Halo. It has the best weapon sandbox. All of the weapons are viable and versatile (or at least somewhat usable outside of their ideal scenario) which is something every other Halo really fails to achieve, opting to instead pigeon hole weapons into a specific niche in later titles.

CE still has the most well designed enemy AI with a ton of personality, despite being over 20 years old. The multiplayer is fun and is a classic party game. In other words, it has everything that would make an FPS fun to play, which makes it truly timeless. It's not just nostalgia (even though I do have a lot of it for CE), this game is legitimately well designed.

I, like many others, don't like the Anniversary remaster's art style, but they made it so you can easily toggle it back to the old style, which frankly doesn't look as dated as you might expect for an early 2000s game.

Oh yeah, and it also has an iconic masterpiece of a soundtrack.

Do not buy this at $30, it's not worth that much. If you can get it on sale for $5-10 (which I did), it's decent value.

I went into this expecting a very casual and mindless zombie killing game (because that's what these developers interpreted Dead Rising as), and that's what I got. You are given fairly ridiculous weapons early on and in relative abundance, giving you more freedom to unleash them on zombies, whereas in other DR games you'd usually save them for stronger enemies or for when you were in a pinch.

I didn't finish the story, in fact I don't even think I'm a third of the way through it. But I don't really care because the story and characters of DR4 are infamously garbage. Instead, I'm getting the experience the developers clearly designed more for, which is to say just exploring the large map and messing around. If you do that, you will have more fun. I blew off the upper half of a single woman mercenary using an RPG just because I could.

What you should expect:

• A decently large map to explore and loot
  
• A variety of ridiculous weapons that appear enough to use them liberally
  
• Plenty of zombies to bludgeon, chop up, run over, blow up, etc...
  
• A streamlined experience that doesn't expect much from you
  
• A game that is primarily a sandbox first and foremost

What you should not expect:

• A classic Dead Rising experience, despite the insanely foolish and insulting marketing of "going back to our roots". It is the least "classic" Dead Rising there is, and removes most of the original mechanics.
  
• A polished game. You will see various bugs like items falling through the ground, floating, clipping through walls, etc. DR4 had a troubled development, to say the least.
  
• Anything resembling good characters or story. It's beyond worthless in that regard, to the point where you'll enjoy it more if you don't pay much attention to it.
  
• Co-op. I don't know why that isn't a thing considering it was a notable selling point of DR2 and DR3, but it isn't.

While playing this, I often thought to myself that this game would be perfect for someone who does not have much time to play games, like a new parent. There's decently frequent auto saves, little to no investment required to finish missions, the player is much stronger at the start compared to previous titles, and the mechanics are streamlined. I can definitely see how their internal focus group players liked this style since they weren't playing for that long.

It isn't that much like Dead Rising though. If it weren't for the weapon variety/sandbox and a story that makes a half hearted attempt to tie into the older titles, it would not be recognizable as an entry to this series. There were times I almost forgot it was Dead Rising, lol.

There's far less resource management, no time management, no fleshed out psychos with their own scenes, no survivors that will follow you, no blenders, no books (that I've seen) healing items are all the same, less strategy in general. It's not surprising that it alienated so many existing fans.

I think they should've embraced the fact that the game is different and ditched the lazy nostalgia pandering (certain areas that played DR1 mall music for example were kind of insulting). It would've been received a little better if it wasn't trying to wear the skin of a game that it isn't actually that similar to.

For what it is though, I got more enjoyment out of it than I expected. I'm one of the people who liked DR3, and this game has more in common with that (a larger world to explore, on the fly crafting, more vehicle travel, a sprint system, etc). I suppose I fall into the niche audience overlap of people who like both the new and older styles of Dead Rising.

DR4 is noticeably not as well made as the others and won't be holding my attention for nearly as long (it's simply not built for the same purpose that DR1 is), but I don't regret giving it a try. I got my money's worth, so I can't thumb it down.

Before I get into this review, I'll quickly say that the first Dead Rising is one of my all time favorite games. However, the sequels were not made by the same studio, and frankly it shows. DR1 was developed in house at Capcom in Japan, while the later entries were done by Blue Castle Games, later known as Capcom Vancouver.

Dead Rising 2 is an overrated Dead Rising game. It's just alright. What I will give it credit for is that it makes an honest attempt to retain the core mechanics, and in a couple of ways it expands upon them positively. It can still be enjoyable to play, which is why I'd still recommend it if you like the others.

Many of the characters and set pieces are reminiscent of something from the original, but they tend to fall short living up to their counterparts. Stacy is a boring character, and doesn't have a lot of chemistry with Chuck (yet we're supposed to believe that they got in a romantic relationship together by the end? They should've wrote it in a way that had him end up with Rebecca, if you ask me. They spend much more time together, we see them grow into trusting each other, yet she is unceremoniously killed off suddenly). Stacy cries herself to sleep at night wishing she could be Jessie.

The psychopaths, which are always one of the highlights of Dead Rising, are not fun to fight in this game. Before you get the dodge roll (which is extremely OP in DR2), it typically comes down to trading blows with the boss, as they are all significantly faster than Chuck. That is if you don't find a way to cheese them, because quite a lot of them have a cheese strat that lets you infinitely loop them in a certain sequence until they die. Either way, it's not really that enjoyable.

To make matters worse, the bosses in this game are about 4-5x tankier than the original. Your attacks suddenly start whiffing once you hit them too many times (damage immunity frames, basically). Most guns barely hurt them even if you unload the entire magazine. Because of their greater endurance, they tend to overstay their welcome. Some of the music choices for them are also out of place. The Italian chef boss plays a forgettable heavy metal track, for example.

Survivor escorting, which is another major part of Dead Rising, is also significantly dumbed down here. The best strategy is to continuously walk forward (or spam dodge roll through crowds) and ignore as many zombies as possible. The zombies will mostly go for you, leaving the survivors behind you to casually brush through them. Even if your survivors do get grabbed, they will break free on their own, so it's usually better to ignore it when it happens.

Unlike Chuck, survivors cannot attack or shoot while they are on the move. That's a problem because with continuously moving being the best strategy, and the map itself being larger (giving you less time to methodically clear each area), it means arming them is almost completely pointless. I love arming my survivors, but I never hear them actually fire their weapon by the time we make it back to the safe house. This was something much more rewarded in DR1 (and I think DR3 as well), but in this one, just forget it. Quite literally the only time they use guns proficiently is when they defect, then they'll gladly stun lock you. I wish I was kidding.

The only nice thing I'll say about the survivors is that their navigation works really well in this game compared to the first one. They rarely get stuck on the map, whereas in the first, helping them get unstuck from each other/walls/objects was a frustrating part of most escorts.

For the most part though, this is a buggier game. I ran into multiple bugs on my recent casual playthrough. One of them involved Chuck getting stuck in a repeated landing animation in between two escalators. One of them involved Stacy's chair never animating, resulting in it blatantly clipping through her torso during the cutscenes. One of them involved a zombie grab that I could not break free from, which resulted in Chuck very slowly inevitably dying. When the life bar emptied, he suddenly broke free from the zombie without my input, then dropped dead a second or two afterwards. I couldn't even be mad.. just wtf?

The PC port of DR2 isn't as well made as the DR1 port, either. Many basic functionalities, like windowed mode and exposed key bindings, are missing here, while DR1 has them.

Overall, it's still worth playing if you like Dead Rising. Ideally you'd get it on sale, though. Personally, out of the games made by Blue Castle/Capcom Vancouver, I'm one of the weirdos who enjoyed DR3 more. It tried to do something a little different, yet still managed to feel like Dead Rising, so I respect it. DR2 is like DR1 but not as good, and the experience is less polished.

I'm kind of surprised it went even this well, though, considering at the time DR2 was made, Blue Castle had practically zero experience developing these type of games. Honestly, that's the most impressive part about it. It was certainly a successful title for its time, and mostly well received. Not everyone could have pulled that off.

Fantastic classic that I played to death back in the 2000s, and still holds up today.

However, be warned that the survivor AI is some of the most horrible you will ever see in a video game, which, considering how many of the missions involves escorting them, is a flaw you will certainly notice. They do not know how to navigate the map or move around other characters, and will consistently get stuck somewhere every time one follows the player. It is so notoriously bad that it has turned some people off from the game, so expect the worst in that regard.

The optional achievements were made by a sadist. One of them requires 14 hours straight playtime with no saves/deaths/AFK. One of them requires saving every single survivor in one playthrough, in a game with infamously terrible friendly AI. One requires being at the right place at the right time 39 times in a row to receive every possible call from Otis.

Yet I'm still doing them anyway, for some reason. Because I actually really like this game. I'll only allow this game to do that to me, lol.

The beauty of Left 4 Dead lies in its simplicity. It is one of the best games of all time to pick up and casually play with friends/family.

There are no upgrade systems, the characters are mechanically identical to play as. Just jump in and play.

The gunplay is satisfying and responsive. The music, characters, and campaigns are iconic. It is a near perfect execution of a co-op shooter. Many others have tried and failed to capture its magic. It is still one of my all time favorite games 14+ years later.

There are hundreds of free campaigns to play on the Workshop, and thousands of ways to customize the game to your liking if you wish. This isn't something you would get out of most modern games, as newer games have found out how to maximize profit and sell that kind of content instead.

The only weak point of this game is the lobby system, which works good for co-op play, but is ill suited for PvP modes like Versus. It may take some searching to find a game that will actually progress beyond the first chapter before everyone on one team quits. Still, the PvP mode of L4D is one of the most unique PvPs in existence, and is something I enjoy a lot, despite its questionable balancing and sometimes toxic inhabitants.

Absolutely get this game if you somehow haven't already. The review rating is 97% positive for a reason. I love it so much that it is literally the only game that I'd be excited to see a sequel for.

It's great, as most Resident Evil games are. Only part I found to be rather frustrating was a segment involving catapults, which was about 10x more difficult than the rest of the game.

I would've preferred it if exploding barrels were designated more clearly (perhaps with a different model/material), because currently the only way to identify them from the brown loot barrels is by their red painted color. It's not the most colorblind friendly thing in the world, and on multiple occasions it caused me to be unable to identify them in moments where they would've been useful. Fortunately you don't need to use them, but still something to note.

Aside from those minor nitpicks I have nothing but positive things to say about the game. Just get it if you like survival horror games, you won't regret it.

On principle I can't support the business practice of entirely replacing an older game with its sequel. Keeping all the old reviews is plain dishonest, as well. Regardless of anything else about the launch (which many people do have valid criticisms for), to me it's worth going out of my way to write a negative review just for that alone.

There would not be nearly as much frustration with the launch issues if not for this disgusting decision to remove the older game. This trend in gaming needs to stop.

Wow, I've really been sleeping on this game. This is a fantastic and adorable platformer, with a quality sense of humor to boot. There are many twists and side activities along the way to spice it up, and the platforming itself flows quite smoothly most of the time. Starts off a little slow, but it had me binging on it once I got a bit further into it.

If you're into the genre, definitely give A Hat in Time a fair shot. I'm impressed with it.

It's hard to call Dear Esther a game, as the player makes literally no interaction with their environment, all they do is simply walk through it and look around.

Every once in awhile the narrator will speak about random things when you eventually reach the next trigger (at a tediously slow walking pace I might add). While this is supposed to help you understand the story, the simple fact is that the "story" is left so incredibly vague that it's somewhat pointless to attempt to figure it out, as there's no right answer. Sometimes this works for games, but in Dear Esther's case, the game does a poor job at getting the player invested in the story, and considering nothing about it is for sure, the player isn't able to piece together some kind of answer like in other vague stories, as you can't rule out any possible conclusion. There are also no meaningful, developed characters in it, rather you're told a collection of names and left to come up with who they could be on your own.

The writing reminds me of some teenager trying to write "deep" poetry for the sake of being deep. The narration snippets are told in a boring, artificially drawn out fashion, much like the game itself is. You'll dread backtracking from one of the many pointless, long dead ends so much that you'll probably noclip to get back to your previous location faster.

So is there anything good about this game? Yeah, it's pretty, and has a good soundtrack, that's about it. Not nearly enough to justify the $10 price tag.

I see this game compared to The Stanley Parable often (which made me look forward to trying this out), but the big difference between that and Dear Esther is that the player's actions actually matter in The Stanley Parable. The player has no purpose in Dear Esther, they're pretty much just moving the camera through scenery for the entire game. All I can say is, I'm glad I didn't pay for this "game", even $2.49 would be stretching it to me. You can find equally great scenery and far better story telling in games with actual gameplay.