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Some of the greatest art in this world are the pieces that almost didn't happen. Half Life 2 is the ultimate testament to risking it all on a vision - the stress and anxiety, the blood sweat and tears, the lack of security and the dwindling of funds. Putting pride and livelihoods on the line to deliver nothing less than what was intended and what was believed in. Fighting for an experience worth having; for a legacy worth establishing. In a modern world where development teams can't even deliver their proper vision without it being filtered mercilessly through the strainers of shareholder boards, focus groups, and consultant firms, Half Life 2 still stands as tall as the Citadel does looming over the inhabitants of City 17. Yet it stands as a golden monument of passion and culture in contrast to the lifeless and mechanical structure the Combine and their ilk inhabit. Our benefactors would have us amalgamated into a gray blob of resources just to be sucked dry until our purposes as useful idiots are fulfilled, delivering us nothing but works stripped of their identities and filled with condescension and disgust toward their audience.

This is not a movie game. It is a GAME first and foremost but with cinematic sequences that serve nothing more than to truly reward the players for their investment in the characters and world around them. It's an experience filled with real diversity that can't be purchased with promises of guaranteed funding. It has companions with real agency and humanity to them. Half Life 2 is brimming with life and the perspectives of dozens of people who were well read and passionate about their own hobbies and cultures while still putting their all into this one collaborative project - to properly follow up one of the most influential narrative FPS experiences of all time. And even though the odds were stacked against them from start to finish, they still did it. They created one of the most immersive and captivating game experiences there is while making sure to never neglect the moment-to-moment gameplay experience for the players. This is a game where you can tell that everyone who worked on it wanted players to be excited and motivated to keep pushing forward from moment to moment. To explore and to take in the nuance of the crafted levels and baked environments. This is nothing but a celebration of cultural enrichment, but most importantly, truly having fun while playing a video game. I mean, come on, who doesn't love a good physics puzzle?

Happy 20th birthday, Half Life 2. The ashes have never smelled sweeter.

How I feel about Neneko in three words: imagine the smell.

I have one of the worst attention spans in the world. I have been diagnosed with ADHD and avoid long games like the plague due to the reasonable fear of not being able to finish them. Every time I open up a game I'm wondering how long it'll be until I get bored and just do something else. I can effortlessly sit down with this iconic JRPG experience and play it for 12 hours straight without even flinching. You can bet your ass I'll be doing it again and again to 100% this game.

Basically, what I'm saying is, if I have to suck off Atlus to get the rest of their critically lauded catalog ported to PC, then that's what I'll do.

Kanji is best boy.

The followup to 2016's Half-Genie Hero is finally here and with no crowdfunding necessary. I backed and enjoyed HGH pretty thoroughly, so when I heard this game was going back to Shantae's metroidvania roots with a new interconnected world to explore, needless to say I was pretty hyped. So, how does Shantae's tropical vacation gone wrong live up to expectations?

Cuter than ever: Shantae and the usual suspects are back and better to look at than ever. While the overworld sprites for both the old and new characters maintain the same style that they had with Half-Genie Hero, the character illustrations for the dialogue are the best they've ever been. Inti Creates has once again flexed as hard as possible to make the characters incredibly cute, fun, and appealing to look at with every moment of dialogue, and that goes double for the new half-genies and bosses. There's also animated cutscenes in this game which is a new for Shantae. The opening animation by Trigger is very fun, and even the fully voiced in-game cutscenes produced by Top Peg and Studio Yotta are charming despite the lack of real lip sync and occasional choppiness.

The world is your oyster: Shantae's brief foray into a level based experience with HGH was shortlived as Seven Sirens brings us back to an open world metroidvania experience that's as tight as ever. The world is a lot of fun to explore and the platforming is smooth and intuitive. The game also has an intuitive warp system which makes traversing the map progressively simpler over time. Despite most of the game taking place below the island's surface in the Sunken City, each area of the game is very distinct in style and maintains a refreshing look as you progress through the game's world and dungeons. With the return of classic dungeons and exploration, Shantae has also reverted to a fully 2D experience. If you were a fan of the 2.5D approach that Half-Genie Hero was experimenting with that had more dynamic backgrounds, you may be disappointed.

Fetch quests feel more like progression and less like backtracking: Shantae and fetch quests are pretty inseparable for better or worse. Thankfully, Seven Sirens saves you a lot of the headache by making the quests a natural progression. When you need to find items to progress the story, they're always in areas you weren't able to reach before because you didn't have the proper upgrades. The game also places NPCs in critical locations that are pretty hard to miss that practically point you in the right direction. Sometime they even give you quest markers on the map!

Powers and dances have been retooled, and it's for the better: Another short-lived design philosophy from Half-Genie Hero was having your transformation powers be locked to dancing. Seven Sirens has made quick work of that by making your powers and dances two very distinct things. All of your transformation upgrades that provide you with new movement options have very simple keybinds that make the platforming and general movement throughout the world smooth and satisfying. Dances now have their own very specific uses throughout the game that are used to uncover secrets and new locations which makes the upgrades in this game feel double layered, which is nice.

It's a Shantae game with Shantae writing: If you were looking for the trademark quirkiness and humor that you expect form every Shantae release, then you won't be disappointed. The writing is still as clever and fun as ever, and the introduction of more colorful characters to the cast rounds this experience out and makes for a lot of fun character dialogue moments from start to finish. There's even a few touching character moments that got a verified "awww" from me.

WayForward knows you liked Giga Mermaid: If you liked Giga Mermaid because she was a giant monster girl, you're in luck. This game is very much for you.

Jake Kaufman is MIA: Longtime composer Jake Kaufman did not return for the newest Shantae release, reportedly because he was too busy with another project to split his time. Instead, WayForward opted in for Japanese chiptune musician Professor Sakamoto who brought a retro chiptune feel to Shantae's soundtrack. A lot of the tracks are remixes or play on previous Kaufman compositions so there is a bit of callback to the original style, but the fact of the matter is that if you're looking for a classic Shantae soundtrack, you're not going to find it here. I think the soundtrack is good for what it was going for and there were a few tracks that definitely stuck in my mind but it's definitely going to stick out like a sore thumb for you if you're hoping for business as usual. For the audiophiles, prepare yourself as they opted in for 128kpbs lossy audio tracks and that may drive you insane. Here's hoping Kaufman returns for Shantae 6.

The game loves you too much to let you die: If you're looking for a challenge, you're not going to get it playing the game normally. Seven Sirens cannot resist dropping you food items from every other enemy, and the more powerful healing items seem to drop more. You also get money so quickly that buying upgrades takes no time at all. While the bosses are often creative and fun to fight, they are equally easy to defeat and you're probably not going to find much challenge in that department. Any difficulty will have to be self-imposed if you want a challenging experience.

Virtual trading card binder: Matt Bozon "borrowed" the Tactical Soul system from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow[comicbook.com] and recycled it into what is known as the Monster Card system in this game. Your mileage may vary on how much you enjoy the addition of this system into the game. Monster Cards can give you nice perks and bonuses to your existing powers but are not essential for getting through the game. Get ready for 100% collection to be a bit of a headache as some enemies only appear in one or two locations throughout the game, and there are even weirder cases like the Jellyfish card which is a pre-requisite for even getting the Pincher card since you can't kill them without it. Thankfully, cards do not actually contribute to the game percentage.

100% guide will save you a lot of stress: If you want to 100% this game, you need to collect all the heart squids and nuggets. There's a handful of both collectibles that are completely hidden and must be revealed with liberal use of the Seer Dance which is a pain because you have to use it randomly in EVERY room if you want to find all the secrets. It's a bit of a frustrating experience going at it blind, so don't feel bad if you use a guide. I hope they don't rely so much on invisible secrets for the next game.

Loading screen purgatory: This is a well documented complaint with the game and WayForward is aware of it, but the loading times are bad. I have this game installed on an NVME M.2 and the loading times exceeded 10+ seconds at points. Also, make sure the turn down the priority level of the game process in Task Manager because it will max out your CPU on EVERY level load if you don't. I hope they patch this soon as this is my only big complaint with the game.

Shantae and the Seven Sirens is a gratifying metroidvania experience and a must play for longtime fans of the series. While not perfect, it's a worthy entry to the series and I look forward to more of Shantae's adventures in the near future. Even with 100%, you can still complete this game in around 10 hours, so feel free to judge whether that is worth a full price purchase. If not, definitely consider getting it when it goes on sale. Hopefully by then the loading issues will be fixed.

RECOMMEND?: Very Yes

hell's greatest sitcom, I Love Lucifer

Pause time, throw a thousand knives, release time, dodge, rinse, repeat.

This is a very good game. It helps that Touhou 6 is my favorite and this has the bulk of the cast from it (Patchy being my favorite) so the Touhou fanservice is very appreciated. Also in general it's just a really solid Castlevania style game that isn't too long but is just enough to be incredibly satisfying and tightly packed from start to finish. Insert DIO joke here.

For 60 dollars, you're getting a Danganronpa game full of style, improved artwork and spritework, an amazing soundtrack, improved trial mechanics and minigames, a vibrant and memorable cast of characters, and a lengthy story that weaves in and out of madness with some of the wildest twists of the franchise. It will redefine the definition of what is truth and what is lies.

It's worth noting that the ending is incredibly divisive, but as someone who loved the ending, give it time. It's an ending you're going to want to chew over for a bit.

But hey, even if you don't like the ending, there's hours of postgame content that will fill the void with dating and cross game character interaction, so look forward to that.

An incredibly solid third-person shooter / puzzle game filled to the brim with all the things I love about Danganronpa and more. I highly recommend the keyboard + mouse controls, because the mouselook camera is fantastic and makes the game incredibly satisfying. Also, Genocide Jack has no qualms showing off her panties mid-fight, so that's a plus.

i spent 10 hours trying to get the measurements for every girl in my school and then caught them in their swimsuits and gym shorts and now i've become enlightened

I stopped playing Overwatch to watch those boobs bounce in 60 FPS, and it was worth it.