Skip to main content

Search

Items tagged with: MiniReview

#MiniReview #Movies Wolfs (2024) takes an amused look at the tropes surrounding the enigmatic job of "fixer" by making two aging ones work together on the same job, against all the rules of the profession. Both Brad Pitt and George Clooney deliver an impeccable impression of the kind of man who've seen it all, doesn't ask questions but still will be petty about some mundane aspect of their sinister craft. Very enjoyable even if you aren't a fan of crime movies.
#movies #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames I remember seeing promotion for Leisure Suit Larry games in the 1990s that intrigued teenage me. I had never seen before an association between video games and pseudoerotic content. I didn't act on this discovery though, in part because my parents were in control of my spendings at the time.

Fast-forward to Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded (2013), the second remake of the original Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (1987) that ended up in my game library through a cheap bundle, probably. And after a playthrough just short of 3 hours, I'm sad and relieved that I didn't miss much at the time. I'm not sure what audience these games are targeting, but it includes neither teenage me nor middle-aged me.

Between the crude sex-related humor, the constant schadenfreude towards the main character and the dubious 4th wall breaking of the narrator, I was both disappointed there wasn't more to it than that and glad that it was finally over so that I could chalk that one off my sizeable backlog.

#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames I want to like Sockpop games, they always have a fun concept, naive but charming graphics, but I always end up giving up after a few hours. And Luckitown (2022) is no different. Sort of a minimalist Dice Legacy (2021), this dice-based tower defense limits what you can build on your turn depending on the roll of several dice. Some buildings eventually give you more dice, and you can hold specific faces between rolls, but the game always reach a point where guessing what the advancing monsters will do on their turn is impossible and the player is left crossing their fingers really hard. More dice also means longer player turns, leading to a significant bogging down of the gameplay halfway through a four-season run.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Transport Fever 2 (2019) looks good. The detail level is impressive and everything looks right. Unfortunately, as a veteran of the transport-anything kind of game, I felt the game fell short compared to its illustrious ancestors going back even to Transport Tycoon Deluxe (1994). I was also impressed by the fully-voiced campaign, but revealing objectives and points of interest gradually in a game genre that's all about advance planning eventually was frustrating.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames I was attracted by the pixel art and the hybrid gameplay of Dome Keeper (2022) but found it wanting. There isn't much to it except trying to find the game mode that will be too hard for you. Strategy is weakened by a strong random factor, whether for the resource location or the wave composition.

And it's yet another colonization-glorifying game. Drop on a planet, kill local fauna (including during the landing cutscene 😒), extract valuable resource, leave a pile of bodies in a crater.

#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Encased (2021) claims heritage from 90's and 00's role-playing video games, and after more than 15h spent on it, I tend to agree. In particular, parallels with Fallout games are clear while still holding on its own. The world is original, the story is compelling, the freedom is wide, combat is optional past the introduction sequence, dialogs are short, well-written and to the point and there's some welcome fourth wall breakage to soften the overall gloomy tone.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Hammerwatch (2013) is a minimalistic dungeon-crawling hack and slash which levels look procedurally generated at first, but actually aren't. It makes for a better navigating experience (keys and the doors they open are logically placed) but doesn't excuse the sheer size of each floor. This makes it way more repetitive than it needs to be, and I was disappointed to find out the true ending requires the player to find all of one type of secrets across a 7h playthrough. Ugh.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Oxygen Not Included (2017) is a comprehensive systems game I didn't manage to get into. Not even 3 hours in and I managed to contaminate my entire water supply with no solution in sight, and absolutely no clue how to implement the suggestions I found online. Apparently it isn't even the hard part of the game!
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #Movies I watched Tenet (2020) on a hunch (the summary was particularly vague) and I don’t regret it. Directed by Christopher Nolan, it has the same “blink and you’ll miss it” feeling as Memento (2020) that made a huge impression on me at the time. It still is very much a shooty action movie, but it should leave you with a few brain knots.
#movies #MiniReview

#MiniReview #Movies I’m a fan of heist movies, which naturally made me want to give El Robo del Siglo (2020) (The Heist of the Century) a shot. Based on a true story, this Argentinian movie delivered on several fronts. In contrast to American movies where the police is invariably depicted as serious, the police negotiator is shown losing his temper with his own colleagues, which makes for welcome comedic relief. On the whole a very good movie I’d recommend even for people not specifically interested in heist movies.
#movies #MiniReview

#MiniReview #Movies #VideoGames Having played several of the games, albeit never to completion, I was curious about Borderlands (2024). The distinctive “colorful apocalypse” aesthetics are beautifully rendered, and the general tone is as unserious as the games’, making for an entertaining experience.

My only regret? There’s a lot of shootin’, but no lootin’ at all, despite it being the main point of the game. I was expecting one of the main characters to spend some time comparing two weapons at an inconvenient time, but no dice.

#movies #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Lately I've been re-enjoying Mob Rule Classic (1999) (that I knew as Constructor: Street Wars back in France) and while I never could get into its predecessor Constructor (1997) mainly for interface reasons, looking for similar games led me to System 3's current production. It turns out they published an HD version of Constructor in 2017 which initially bombed, then worked their way out of initial release hell, and finally published a cheaper and expanded version called Constructor Plus in 2019.

Now with widescreen support, highly detailed graphics and a zoom feature but no significant gameplay changes from the original Constructor game, I can finally enjoy that game in a more modern context, exactly what I was looking for!

#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Bear and Breakfast (2022) is a very cute game with quirky dialogue. Unfortunately, its glacial pacing will frustrate people like me who are trying to get some efficiency going in this management game.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Airborne Kingdom (2020) is a contemplative city builder with an Arabic aesthetic that works well without overdoing it. The city planning is pretty forgiving thanks to the move feature even if it isn't always free, and while the main story can be done in less than 10 hours, the optional content and the sandbox mode should satisfy any further desire to play.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #Movies I was disappointed by Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024). For someone like me who considered the vehicles as the more interesting characters of Mad Max: Fury Road, there’s a cruel dearth of them. Watching the original right after the prequel, the latter doesn’t stand in comparison. Everything is cranked up to the max in Fury Road, the colors, the action, the characters, the vehicles, which is the only way in my view it could and did work.
#movies #MiniReview

#MiniReview #Movies Dune: Part 2 (2024) is a faithful continuation of the first movie. A lot of spectacular and pointless fighting and too little but tense intrigue. Overall a good spectacle way showier than the books.

Awaiting the hopefully last movie in the series. Much like Star Wars, this franchise has the potential to bog down with each subsequent release.

#movies #MiniReview

#MiniReview #Movies Disney's Descendants (2015) is the worst kind of direct-to-video Intellectual Property milking production. I didn't know until tonight it existed, and I couldn't forget it soon enough.
#movies #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Cult of the Lamb (2022) is a game I really wanted to like. The artistic direction is stellar between the subverted theme by the cute art style and the music, but this combo roguelike/survival village ended up doing both poorly for me, with fights often unreadable and a cult management that felt like a chore.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #travel Scotland is so moist moss is growing absolutely everywhere, which allows @eclectech to depict it as happy critters. Food was disappointing but the landscapes were breathtaking when the fog lifted, and McDonalds were either merciless raiders or victims of betrayal depending on the museum exhibit.
#MiniReview #travel @eclectech

#MiniReview #VideoGames Gloomhaven (2021) immediately felt like a Games Workshop production to me, not without reason: it was originally conceived in 2017 as a board game including miniatures. It's a turn-based dungeon crawler with an original action card economy, but both the breadth of possible actions and the anxiety-inducing card burning mechanic made me quit the game at the first skirmish of the campaign.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Sword of the Stars: The Pit (2013) is Rogue (1980), but IN SPACE. And that's pretty much it.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #Movies Since I saw it recently being recommended several times in my timeline, I gave Nimona (2023) a shot. I had an inkling it was about transidentity but I didn’t expect it to go that hard. With a fresh look, funny visual gags and quips, it didn’t even need to go that hard to be good! Heartily recommended, available on Netflix and YouTube at least.
#movies #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Hob (2017) by Runic Games feels like an over-produced game jam entry given its self-imposed constraint to do away with any dialogs or written language. It is very aesthetic with some breathtaking vistas, but ultimately the lack of text creates more frustration than wonder, and makes every single ambiguity in the level or map design painfully stand out.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames I remember spending quite some time on Galactic Civilizations II but Galactic Civilizations III didn't impress me despite its attempt at providing a compelling single player campaign with well-defined chapters. It turns out it doesn't work very well with 4X games, and this could be overlooked if the rest of the game was crisp, but it falls short in a number of small but significant ways.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (2021) is a short and sweet action adventure game inspired by The Legend of Zelda with cheeky humor and delightfully pixelated graphics.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Surviving the Aftermath (2021), just like EndZone: A World Apart (2021) which is unfortunately almost the same game, suffers from wanting to give a personable approach to colony sim, but ends up being the same exact tedious past 100 colonists. With very few tools to actually manage colonists' flow, a lot of time is wasted watching the grass grow, which isn't nearly as dramatic as "Surviving the Aftermath" lets on.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Cultist Simulator produced and distributed by Weather Factory is intriguing at first, with its board of cards not all permanent, its timed processes and an occult lore that unveils little by little. Unfortunately, the required time to just approach the mid-game is counted in hours (even at 2x speed) and then the chances to run into the really mean traps increase sharply.

Just like in the Fallen London universe that was written by the very same Alexis Kennedy, the cryptic writing is captivating, but ultimately the repetitive tasks over long periods of time just to succumb to a chance percentage isn't my thing.

#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames I got Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak (2016) for free on Epic and I was ready to dislike it given my heightened feelings about the original Homeworld (1999). The campaign turned out to be enjoyable, letting players take their time just as in its ancestor. The Skirmish mode against AI-powered opponents is too frenetic for me though.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #Movies Continuing on my never-ending journey into movies that sparked Internet memes, I watched Will Ferrell's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) that gave the "I'm not even mad, it's amazing" and "Boy, that escalated quickly" memes. Overall I didn't enjoy very much this ham-fisted attempt at tackling sexism in a professional context, and many celebrity cameos felt unnecessary, but I did laugh when Jack Black kicked Will Ferrell's dog in the San Diego Bay.
#movies #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Bounty Train (2017) by Corbie Games is an economic simulation set in the American East around the Civil War. Zooming between stations in your personal steam train, you will have to transport passengers, cargo and crew to make money and face the many perils of this time, including bandits, native Americans, Union and Confederate soldiers, and even the Ku Klux Klan.

This game manages to breathe life in what is essentially a min-max game with interesting diminishing returns, timed and random events, and an overarching storyline that keeps things from going stale. You'll meet, even briefly, characters like Ulysses Grant, Robert Lee, Mark Twain, Samuel Colt and some of the most famous rail barons of the time.

Interestingly, I abandoned the game a few years back because of a save game breaking bug, but when I reinstalled it recently, ready to start over, I was able to resume my old save and complete the campaign.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Dredge (2023) is a light horror-fishing game I discovered on a Twitch stream and liked instantly. With simple QTEs for the actual fishing and a somewhat limited map, it isn't very long (I finished the main story in about 10h) but makes up for it in raw charm. Visuals, sounds and atmosphere are all top-notch, while forgiving mechanics makes it avoid the die-and-retry pitfall.

Highly recommended!
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #Travel Montréal in Canada is a nice city with plenty to see and plenty to do, including diverse architecture and a rich culinary, cultural and entertainment offer. But even on the second visit I still can’t get past the twin language (Québécois-English) quirk and the cultural mix between Old French and Contemporary North American cultures breaks my brain used to Metropolitan French culture and American culture separately.
#MiniReview #travel

#MiniReview #VideoGames
  • Install Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus (2018).
  • Get team wiped out on the second tactical battle after the tutorial.
  • Uninstall.

I simply don't have the time for these games.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames As the sole survivor of a mission to save the world, you are The Captain (2021) on a journey back to hopefully save Earth. With a branching storyline that you can fast-replay to get all the alternative paths, it is a nice point-and-click game with engaging characters. I couldn't bear to finish the game though, as the story themes around loss and responsibility started to weigh a little too much on my mind. Still recommended.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #videogames After Two Point Hospital (2018) that was too close to Theme Hospital (1998) for me to enjoy on its own, Two Point Campus (2022) is the proof that Two Point Studios have Bullfrog-like chops. Played during a recent Free Weekend, I found it to be a fun and engaging building/management game, this time like no other.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview #VideoGames Finally played @IndustriesGame after backing it several years and waiting for the 1.0 release a week ago, went bankrupt during the tutorial mission, 10/10 will play again. 👍
#videogames #MiniReview @IndustriesGame

#MiniReview #VideoGames Sunless Skies (2019) is the direct sequel to Sunless Sea (2015) taking place in Failbetter Games's gothic horror Fallen London universe. And exactly as its predecessor, it's very well written and eventually very tedious.
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview Humankind™ (2021) is a nice game, but it is so similar to Civilization VI (2016) that it feels like a glorified mod, down to the degraded performances on my computer and the odd couple of quirks. The few new concepts are neat, but they don't alter the overall game experience beyond its obvious inspiration. #VideoGames
#videogames #MiniReview

#MiniReview After 8 hours, I finished Titanfall 2 (2016) single-player campaign and it was very, very good, as @Bean!_ advertised. I tried to find a multiplayer cooperative Frontier Defense game but I couldn't keep a connection to the server before actually finding a game. I'm sad there's no local bot match but overall I can't complain.

#VideoGames
#videogames #MiniReview @Moved to @bean@twoot.site

#VideoGames #MiniReview I just finished Hardspace: Shipbreaker at a marathon pace (50h in 10 days) and it’s a really good game with a worthwhile political content to boot. If you like puzzles, space simulations, engineering and/or unions, this game is for you.
#videogames #MiniReview

⇧