Author: Chezni

I used to be with it, until they changed what it was. Now what I am with isn't it and what is it seems weird and scary to me. (Doomsayer Voice) It will happen to you...
Far Cry 3
by Chezni

 

… … …  click here for 100% realistic simulation of Chezni*

 

I broke down and traveled through the Uplay realm to play this one. I had to. I’ve been waiting literally years  to play this one. Ever since I saw my brother play this back in 2013, it genuinely just looked fun. Like, lots of fun. A game where you wear a Hawaiian shirt, run around and shoot terrorists and boars and have access to a quantity of guns and rides that would make Rambo jealous? I’m in. The problem is (and a big reason why Lepcis and I are doing this Steam challenge to begin with) is that I bought a pack of Far Cry games and *forced* myself to play through and 100% the first two before I’d let myself play this one. Truth is, while the first two weren’t bad games, they weren’t the one I wanted to play. Call it thick-headed gaming machoism or perhaps completionist masochism but it’s the truth. That was the kind of gamer I used to be before we started doing this. Anecdote in mind but out of the way, there’s no way I was going to let even Uplay ruin this one for me.

 

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Just Cause
by Chezni

 

Just ‘cuz. Just. ‘Cuz. If you’re saying “Just Cause,” you’re saying it wrong. Also the title card for this game is crappy, so here’s a guy jumping out of a plane.

 

Now this is my kind of GTA. Whereas GTA tries to take itself so darn seriously, games like Just Cause (and Saint’s Row I’m told) are just all about having fun. Why? Just cuz, that’s why. Suddenly it’s easy to not only believe but be perfectly okay with accepting the fact that my character is more lead than flesh by the time I’m done with a mission. I don’t care that can jump out of a moving vehicle at nearly any speed and be fine. I don’t care that my special power is summoning a parachute out of nowhere at any given time because I feel like it. It all happens just ‘cuz.

 

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Sword of the Stars: The Pit
by Chezni

 

I dream of electric dolphins. What?

 

This game is awesome. I hesitate to call it a roguelite but it’s not quite a roguelike either–something in-between. You’re in space-somewhere and the space-plague has broken out. Now you’re off to find the space-cure before things can get anymore space-pear shaped in the pit of some apace-mountains where no one has ever come back from alive before. Sounds promising.

 

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Heroes of Might & Magic V (Series)
by Chezni

 

If they make too many more of these games, they’re going to be contenders with Enix for “Fantasy RPG with too many Roman numerals.” I am of course, talking about…

 

The Might & Magic Series is certainly a mixed bag. Wrapped in this somewhat underrepresented franchise are first-person RPGs, take-turn fantasy army raising simulators, puzzle-strategy army simulators, grid-based RPGs and party-based open world RPGs. Say what you will, the franchise has brought many-a-title to the gaming world and have tried many different things. Until…

 

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Fallout 2
by Chezni

 

I mean, it’s more Fallout if that’s you’re thing, right?

 

I appreciate the Fallout games. I really do. I have just never liked them. It may not entirely be the Fallout series’ fault–they come from an era where sandbox~ish role playing games were practically non-existent and so any game (Fallout) that fit the bill, regardless of how obtuse the HUD was or how insanely difficult it was to figure out how to make the plot progress or how simultaneously breakable-yet-balls-hard the combat was, it was usually considered a godsend. It also came off the tail-end of an era of gaming where “difficulty” was more akin to countless hours of trial and error rather than intuitive problem solving. This generally was not a problem since, due to small number of games available for purchase (relative to today’s market) alongside the even smaller availability of solid open world RPGs, gamers were just happy to get their hands on anything.

 

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Recettear: An Item Shop Tale
by Chezni

 

MY FATHER IS DEAD. …better open an item shop!

 

I’ve been looking forward to this one for a couple reasons. Firstly, I’ve played and 100%-ed this game’s… *ahem* “sister” game “Chantelise,” a game that features a young girl Chante and her fairy sister Elise who rent out a room from a woman who runs an item shop. Noticing the pattern? Anyway, reason 2 for my interest in Recettear was that it came highly recommended to me by more than one person. Reason number 3 and perhaps the most exciting, is that this is one of the few times I get to write a review following a review of Lepcis’s. This naturally brings about a certain air of… conflict… and it makes me happy to see that our opinions clash on this one–a feature that helps me both understand myself as a writer and as a game reviewer.

 

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Run or Die
by Chezni

 

It’s like the movie Speed, only you’re on foot.

 

The year is 20xx…. okay not really, but you do have a robot suit. Run or Die is a runner game where you can’t stop moving or the bomb in your R.O.D. suit will explode. Your job? Run away from the evil organization that’s chasing you to steal the suit. You’re goal is to make it back to the doc where he’ll be able to put you in a Safe Zone where he can get the suit off of you. The good news is, the suit gives its wearer infinite stamina. The bad news… it’s unstable, which is what causes the explosion when you stop running.

 

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Braid
by Chezni

Well, what better way to follow up Lepcis’s Prince of Persia review than with…

 

Braid is a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. It also has nothing in it that I thought there would be. Braid is a platforming game where you can rewind time to fix any mistake you make. In fact, the game won’t even let you die, as the moment you’ll leave the screen from death, the game pauses and won’t proceed until time is rewound. Lined up with this theme, the game sports a philosophical story exploring the concept of a never making a mistake, especially when concerned with a relationship. The word “Braid” actually seems to be in reference to the way a person’s hair will whip behind them when they spin away from someone quickly, “lashing […] with contempt.” As my wife used to have hair down to her waist that she wore in a braid, I can tell you that a person’s hair really does do this when they angrily turn away.

 

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