Recent reviews by WITWAR

It's remarkable how many AAA parkour-action games owe so much to this classic. Within the first 5 minutes of playing I could feel the familiar traversal and combat mechanics that would go on to be gradually refined (with quite a few missteps along the way) into series like Assassin's Creed, Crackdown, and InFamous. The parkour segments are better than those in games from a full decade later, and the rewind mechanic is a godsend, but the combat encounters all have about 2-3 times too many enemy respawns to be anything but a chore. Despite this, it is still a joy to push through and witness the story and the interplay between the Prince and Farah. It's rare to see prince/princess interactions that don't end in romance, and it was almost unheard-of at the time!

It's still one of the best stories in video games, and has some of the most impressive voice acting. The gameplay is very of-its-time (SR1 was built using the Gex engine!) but the re-mastering makes it look as good as it possibly can. I just wish they'd also remastered Defiance so that players could experience the whole story!

Spookier than my day job, but the customers are more polite and the promotion prospects are more enticing. Most importantly, the knowledge base is better-maintained. 10/10, can't wait to play the seasonal DLC around the Holidays.

It's hard to believe that a light RPG/dating sim/skateboarding/cooking game could have some of the best-written characters and most emotionally honest dialogue in the current gaming landscape, but Thirsty Suitors pulls it off. It offers the chance to explore a Scott Pilgrim-esque Evil Exes story with much more nuance and depth, and in the end love doesn't necessarily conquer all (and that's a good thing!)
The gameplay often serves as a vehicle for the storytelling in a way that may dissatisfy game purists, but anyone who actually enjoys experiencing a narrative will be in for a treat. I particularly liked the way the boss battles served as metaphors for the exchanges actually occurring between the characters in the real world.
There's so much going on in Thirsty Suitors that it can be forgiven for not having the most robust or deep gameplay in any of its given styles. Try cooking in a Paper Mario game, or healing broken relationships in a Tony Hawk game!
I will say that the setting is a little odd, in that it ostensibly takes place in the late 1990s but feels more like an alternate 2020s where mp3 players, smartphones, and social media were never invented. Teens still spend all their time on their phones, but they're playing Snake and texting with T9Word. It's actually quite charming!

"Dreamlike" is the best way I can describe the experience of playing Season. The sights and sounds are beautiful and relaxing. The dialogue is poetic and fantastical (if sometimes a little pretentious). The theme as conveyed through metaphors feels insightful yet insubstantial - its impression persists, but its details don't really stick with you once you return to the real world. The core gameplay is _there_, but much just serves as a way to shuttle the player between story points. The scrapbooking element is actually rather nice, but the game is so forgiving that many players may decide not to bother composing an attractive layout of mixed media and just do the bare minimum to complete the requirements. Doing so defeats the purpose of the story, and I don't recommend it. Season has a lot to say about how we try to balance experiencing the present with preserving it as the past in order to shape the future.
I highly recommend it if you've ever wanted to experience the joy of having someone else appreciate the hard work you put into making an aesthetically-pleasing and personally-meaningful scrapbook.

I've been playing video games to relax and unwind for years, but this is the most genuinely soothing and satisfying game I've encountered. It's dirt simple to pick up and play, and (outside of challenge mode) never stressful or frantic. You can just take your time and enjoy washing away the grit and grime, and watch a very speedy time-lapse replay of your progress when you finish. There's just a touch of narrative world-building to string the levels together as well, which culminates in a charming epilogue. It's a great counterpoint to Viscera Cleanup Detail, which had a more involved story but much less satisfying core gameplay. Grab a couple of friends (or just throw on your favorite podcast) and wash your cares away!

This is absolutely the video game equivalent of a cult classic low-budget B horror movie. It makes the most of its limited scope to focus on its key gimmick (train-based travel and literal rail shooting) and balancing between ever-present dread and jump scare horror. Charles, a demonic clown-spider wearing a train as a carapace, is the stuff of my nightmares and I legitimately panicked the first few times he appeared to kill me. That made it all the more satisfying when I was finally able to launch a fusillade of rockets into his creepy clown face.
The game is not without its faults, however. The static facial expressions of the characters (and, frankly, most of their dialogue) feels not only cheesy and cheap but unsettling in an uncanny-valley way. The stealth segments lack clear mechanics, and usually the only way to get around them is to get spotted by one enemy at a time and lure them back to your train where you can mow them down, which is needlessly time-consuming. Other than those gripes, however, I'd say this is a fun little game that excels at exactly what it was trying to do. It's well worth picking up the next time it's on sale, but may not be worth its money at full price.

What sets Rollerdrome apart from other "Tony Hawk with guns"-style games are its beautiful cel-shaded 1970s Michael-Crichton-novel-turned-feature-film aesthetic, its understated story mode that provides enough hooks to intrigue you without bogging down the flow of the action, and its absolutely drum-tight controls. The violence feels satisfying to commit and to watch, which is exactly what the villains want the athletes and audience to feel in the story. The challenges scale nicely as well, and I was satisfied with what I could accomplish with only my limited skill. It kept me coming back hour after hour for just one more run, where I felt sure that I'd be victorious next time.

The creators of Scarlet Hollow have done (and continue to do) excellent work constructing a slow-build horror story that starts out lightly spooky and gradually adds layers of dread. The characters are well-developed and multi-faceted, and feel real enough within the story that you're actually scared when they're put in jeopardy. There's enough humor in the situations and dialogue to humanize the characters and break up tense moments, but it never feels forced or contrived. The choices you make during pivotal moments in each chapter have long-lasting repercussions, and the attribute system ensures that you will have the chance to avoid the really hard choice on two out of the seven in-game days, but WHICH days those will be is part of the mystery.
The plot has more than a handful of elements in common with Night in the Woods (and I wish I could say that about more games!) but it presents those elements with very different contexts and perspectives. If you like stories about spooky decaying rural towns, where there are secrets buried in the coal mines and "upstanding members of the community" who have terrible skeletons in their closet, with protagonists who get bad headaches and terrible visions that portend doom, Scarlet Hollow is a great game for you.

It's been a long time since I took a vacation in the real world, but Sable feels like a lot of the things I look for when I go traveling. The beauty of each unique environment (from color palette to geological features to flora and fauna) is a sight to behold, and the breezy flow of traveling on your hoverbike as the music gently sets the scene. The relaxed, go-anywhere pacing of the open world lets you set the agenda without fear of missing out or running out of time, and be as focused or haphazard in exploring and interacting with the world as you choose to be. The lack of combat informs the tone of your character's interactions with the people of the land, and you feel more like a part of the community when you're solving problems other than "kill # monsters." The protagonist's arc is a classic coming-of-age story, and the final choice you make determines what sort of person you've decided to become in a satisfying way. But more than anything, the game is beautiful. Screenshots don't do it justice, you need to see the way it moves for yourself.