Recent reviews by Arcturus

Hades 2 is probably the first game I continued playing because I was certain I was missing something. In the end, I was not.

The breakdown is pretty simple: the narrative and writing are significantly worse than Hades 1 in ways that could have been fixed. The gameplay and mechanics are significantly better than Hades 1. If you are fine with that trade-off, this game is a no-brainer. If you play SGG's work specifically for the storytelling, then this game will drive you up the wall with it's clear faults.

Tobias Radiation Fox is the greatest to ever do it, what more can we say at this point?

The greatest game of all time.

So much fun. Just so much fun. The animation is beautiful and fluid. The environments are overloaded with tacit storytelling and funny asides. The music is catchy. I just loved every second with this, especially with the sort of coming of age story it revolves round. Joey and Jude's sibling affection and the hanging shroud of child neglect was painfully on point at times. I very much enjoyed this new window into a universe I was already quite fond of.

And tbh given how completely screwed up and fraught the development of this game was, I'm downright proud of this final product.

Can't wait to play the whole thing again to rub every item on every other item and read all the bonus text.

Man, I was so surprised by how well the Link worked. I've been using the computer to computer In Home Streaming for a long time, and it was... workable but always very very low quality. With the Link, it was a huge turnaround. I have a solidly mid-teir gaming rig, and I seamlessly streamed Fallout 4 at Medium-High quality without so much as a hiccup.

It especially exceeded my expectations because I'm not running a directed wired connection to my PC. I took a chance and instead used two powerline adapters to bridge the connection from my router to my PC room. It worked great. The image is very good. I would say the only thing that isn't suitable for streaming is very timing-precise games. An FPS or RPG, fine, but trying to play Thumper was a hilariously awful idea.

Basically, yes, I would give it a shot, definitely. I went in with very very realistic expectations and was very pleasantly surprised.

TFTBL was nearly my game of the year. It's without a doubt Telltale's best work, a game so good that it makes me want to critique it because it's so nearly perfect.

The pros of this game: it provides a fantastic, true look at a ridiculous, colorful universe. It tells a deeply emotional story in that setting, embracing the humor of the BL universe without sacrificing the impact of its story. There a moments in these episodes when I had to pause the game to wait for the laughter to pass. There are at least two other times I paused the game to cry.

Rhys and Fiona are both delightful characters to be around. Fiona and Sasha gave me sisterly feelings despite being an only child. Rhys' conflict through the story, the real impetus driving things for much of the plot, was dark and dangerous and funny.

The ending of "Atlas Mugged" was perhaps one of the most cinematic and perfect moments I've ever seen in a game. The entirety of "Escape Plan Bravo" was a tour de force of absurdity told via the best Ocean's Eleven AU you've ever seen. And the emotional climax of Rhys' story in "Vault of the Traveler" had me in *tears.*

And yet, the whole series feels like it was inches away from true greatness. As this was being released concurrently with the TTG Game of Thrones and in the run up to the Minecraft game... it was hard to shake the feeling that despite having a passionate, talented team behind it, TFTBL didn't have the support it deserved. Its a running joke in the gaming community that TTG's choices don't actually matter. In TFTBL, the major decision in Episode 2 had ripple effects all the way to Episode 4. But in Episode 5... Rhys' path was suddenly, jarringly railroaded for no discernable reason. All the foreshadowing around him just fell through, and if you didn't play Rhys as the Friends Are Magic type of Good Guy, his characterization goes out the window.

It's honestly *strange* given how much effort pre-Episode 5 went into honoring the player's choices. I feel like if the TFTBL team was given more support from TTG, the finale would have secured TFTBL as the biggest GOTY contender against the likes of Undertale, Witcher, and Fallout.

But even then, even after all that: I rec TFTBL to everyone I know. My critique only comes from a place of "It was great but could've been better *if*." Even with its flaws, I can't hold any of it against TFTBL because the presentation and writing for the whole series was so phenomenal. I laughed, I cried, I made all my friends play it. Thanks for the ride, TFTBL team.