Recent reviews by Sirgibsalot

Selaco is a breath of fresh air in an increasingly stale retro-shooter genre. While its intriguing worldbuilding is let down by a threadbare story that doesn't give much context to what you're doing and too much of the difficulty comes from cheap-shot enemy ambushes, Selaco otherwise weaves its influences together with skill. If you thought that System Shock would've been perfect if it had F.E.A.R's combat, Doom 3's aesthetics and Half-Life's sense of level design, this is your dream game come true. Selaco has the makings of an all-time great, and even in its current state is more than worth the price of admission.

Where Yakuza 3 felt like the team adapting to a new generation of hardware, 4 shows how much they settled in. It smooths out many of 3's rough edges with the gameplay while the multiple protagonists of its story gives some much-needed variety, introducing some of the best characters in the entire series. But the plot struggles to focus with the latter half feeling noticeably rushed, its flaws compounded by a ludicrous twist and a finale that goes through the motions. Much like Yakuza 3, 4 is a good game that's been made worse by the march of time, improving on Yakuza 3's faults but draped in the shadow of its gargantuan sequel.

More unofficial patch than true overhaul, Update is mostly focused on bringing HL2's maps to the standards set by its later Episodes, applying the same lighting techniques and particle effects along with bringing in some of the changes made by the Xbox 360 version of the game. Update is good for what it is but is as safe as possible with its changes, turning down chances to update character shaders or dated brushwork to Episodic standards in the name of authenticity. It's also fallen behind HL2 when it comes to things like Steam Deck compatibility.

Powerslave suffered from having its best versions stuck on less than ideal consoles, which this remaster finally addresses along with adding the usual modern features you'd expect from good remasters. While its unconventional ammo system is clunky and it can be a bit of a slog navigating its levels, Powerslave's Metroidvania-esq design and progression was years ahead of its time, standing apart from other shooters and elevating its solid but unremarkable gameplay. The price tag is a bit much for how much content this remaster has though.

Not quite your average boomer shooter, Zorch is a throwback to the kind of quirky games you'd see from Rareware and Shiny with aesthetics right out of the later era of the Nintendo 64. While its music is forgettable and its sounds are muted, Zorch has it where it counts with solid level design, creative weapons, a vast enemy roster, lighthearted tone and rock-solid mechanics. It doesn't excel in any one aspect, but for its bargain bin price Zorch is a charming and fun shooter that stands out from the standard Quake and Doom homages of the genre.

Baldur's Gate 3 is Larian's best game yet. It packs a massive amount of content, AAA-grade production values, memorable characters and detailed game design that reflects not only the numbers but the creativity of the D&D tabletop, all with no strings attached... but it's not perfect. The UI is a chore to work with, the constant dice rolls for skill checks are frustrating, its later acts lack the polished sheen of its opening hours and the endings are clearly rushed. It might go down as overrated in retrospect, but this is a still a great game filling the BioWare-sized hole in the RPG market that's been left empty for too long.

El Paso, Elsewhere is never more than competent when it comes to gameplay, as its limited enemy roster takes little advantage of its mechanics while the repetitive levels make the campaign padded out despite its short length. What turns Elsewhere from a mediocre Max Payne throwback to a certified cult classic is its story, aesthetics and soundtrack. This is an introspective and personal journey so tightly woven with its music that neither can be truly appreciated without the other. While the game parts of Elsewhere never quite fit together, the love its small team poured into every other aspect makes the experience worth it.

Over a decade later, Mass Effect's trilogy is still captivating despite its increasingly dated nature and the missteps of later entries, but as a remaster job the Legendary Edition is merely decent at best. The first game got the most attention here by far but all three games mainly settle for upscaled textures and lighting tweaks. It's disappointing that more wasn't done here to address the flaws of each game and the loss of ME3's multiplayer stings, but this is the best way to experience the story of the trilogy today and there's mods that help immensely to make this feel like a true remaster.

The original RE4's Separate Ways felt like an afterthought, but this incarnation is anything but one. There's lots of new scenes that puts parts of the main game in new contexts and Ada herself has just enough gameplay changes to feel distinct, while the levels cleverly bring back setpieces and bosses cut from the remake, mixing in old and new areas and even a few ideas from the original RE4's early development. Holding back content from the main game for this DLC might've been a bit underhanded, but this side campaign genuinely benefited from a remake and justifies its price tag.

Its voice acting isn't as entertainingly hammy as Sir-Tech's games, the UI is clunky, and the streamlined design creates problems JA2 already solved. Despite its flaws, Jagged Alliance 3 still honors the legacy of the series with colorful characters, a surprising amount of quests and gameplay mixing bits of XCOM 2 and Silent Storm in with the classic JA formula. It doesn't reach the high bar set by JA2 or its brilliant but bloated 1.13 mod, but Haemimont deserves credit for a sincere effort that's easily the best thing to come from the series since Sir-Tech folded. And it might get a lot better in time thanks to modding support.