Izzy's 2021 Year in review...retro gamers unite :P

[isthatallyougot]

Ok, I guess we'll do this again. Early in the year I didn't game much at all due to moving and having much of my stuff in storage - much of which is *still* in storage, lol. But after things settled down, I got into back into a flow with gaming, and I found myself spending a bunch of time with older games for some reason. There are still tons of older games I want to play, and sometimes it's hard to mix playing games of yore with present day stuff - trying to feel like I'm enjoying the full breadth of this hobby. (This year I've already started playing more recent stuff, so maybe this will be a vastly different gaming year for me...we'll see.) Anyway, on with the countdown...

I only had one game that was a replay this year, which is a bit unusual for me. I usually like to throw in some personal classics along with new stuff over the course of a year, but this year only had one, and I'll get to that before starting the countdown.

REPLAY

THE PINBALL ARCADE (PC)



What can be said about pinball? Everyone knows it. Many love it. Many are indifferent. I, for one, absolutely adore it. I booted this up again this year and found myself as addicted as always. I've got 51 of the beautifully recreated real life tables. I'm still kicking myself for not picking up all of the seasons before some tables were delisted. What a fool! I never tire of pinball, and these 51 boards I do have could keep me occupied forever. Such a wonderful combination of skill, luck and sensory input. I'll play pinball (or its virtual representation) until I drop. I spent close to 60 hours playing various tables in this collection again this year, the majority of hours which were given to The Addams Family. This 1992 table has such an incredible flow with an absolutely great layout with always something to shoot for. I've surely not played every pin, or even close, but this is my favorite table. 5/5

#40) Wheels of Aurelia (PC)



Wheels of Aurelia is a text-based game where you have minimal control of a vehicle on the roads of Italy while on a journey to France as a girl who picks up hitch-hikers along the way. In the beginning the main character picks up a girl who turns out to be pregnant. Along the journey you have a minimal amount of choice in terms of dialogue options within a few short conversations. You eventually discover that men aren't worth it and decide to shack up with your first passenger (the pregnant girl) and raise the coming child together in France, having a much better life - all without men. Sheesh. I think this game is too "woke" for me. I'll listen to any viewpoint, especially if the game is fun, but despite the graphics being pretty nice, there's virtually no gameplay to enjoy and the interactions have virtually no depth or substance. I hate giving out 1/5 scores, and I won't here because I did enjoy the simple but well-designed graphics. But it really is barely deserving of the 2/5 I'll give it. Don't bother.

#39 Explorers (Deluxe Edition) (PC)



Explorers (Deluxe Edition) is a little indie experience that I fired up on a whim. The gist of the experience is that you are sailing around an unexplored world on a raft and trying to uncover the map. There are no real requirements or things you have to accomplish. You can try to uncover an entire map if you wish, a task which is facilitated by trading items you find on land masses peppering the seas with other explorers to get details about the world (uncovering more of the map). There are a variety of items - apparently of varying value as some individuals won't accept what you offer in trade, but little is explained. The visuals are fairly rudimentary and the sounds very reminiscent of the Atari VCS. I was satisfied with the presentation mostly, despite its simplicity, but there just wasn't enough to the experience. I can appreciate a non-directed approach where the goals are your own, but there wasn't really much to strive for here other than appreciating the atmosphere. Just not compelling enough to recommend despite its merits. It could be fleshed out into something enjoyable with some work, but as it is, it's more of a curiosity than anything else. 2/5.

#38 Midnight Manor (PC)



Midnight Manor for PC is a simple platformer/puzzle game where you arrive at a mansion looking for shelter and are greeted by the owner who offers you place for the evening in return for helping him out. You have to find some bones and artifacts that belong to the deceased denizens of this place and toss them into the fire. There are keys to find and boxes to stack for platforming as well as upgrades to find allowing for higher jumping and faster speed. You eventually end up in the haunted basement (and below) in your quest to uncover the mystery. It controlled nicely and had some appeal, but honestly was rather repetitive. I've surely played worse, but Midnight Manor wasn't engaging enough for me to offer a recommendation. 2/5.

#37 Jackie Chan Stuntmaster (PS1)



I love a good beat-em-up...emphasis on the word "good". I picked up Jackie Chan Stuntmaster on the PS1 hoping to get that experience. What I got was a mindless button-masher with no finesse or real style. The platforming ranged from serviceable at best to quite poor at its worst. The FMVs reminded me of Syphon Filter in their blockiness, which didn't really bother me, but had that similarity. There were boss fights that just felt like regular enemies with more health, collectibles that seemed meaningless, although Jackie felt like it was his "lucky day" when getting one. On the positive side I did get to *enjoy* Jackie's Engrish. What can I say? This game was disappointing, and if you take away the name on the box, it had virtually nothing to offer. A 2/5.

[isthatallyougot]

#36 Beavis and Butt-Head (SNES)



I was feeling nostalgic for some of my younger days and remembering how funny I found the MTV show Beavis and Butt-Head, I wanted to take a trip down memory lane. Having watched their big-screen adventures again earlier this year, I decided to play their self-titled game on the SNES. It's a side-scrolling beat-em-up/platformer with some other game styles sporadically tossed into the mix, with a few bosses blended in for good measure. As you walk left to right, you are confronted with skateboarders, dogs, shopping carts, characters from the show, and a variety of other nuisances. It's the type of game where you can sometimes be confronted with an enemy with little to no time to react, so it becomes a game of stage-memorization/mastery, like many older games of this ilk. That wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that the controls aren't particularly engaging, and in some places - like bouncing and platforming on springy clothes lines - are quite frustrating. To be fair though, it's totally playable, despite some annoyances. You are given some weapons to deal with your foes, like a baseball bat with a boxing glove on the end of it, and a toy gun of some kind. And there are some tag-team moves where Butt-head kicks Beavis over an obstacle and follows him with a jump of his own. There's a couch fishing mini-game where food is falling outside the dim-witted duo's living room window for some inexplicable reason, and you try to catch as much as you can without getting your hook stolen by an adversary. There's also some voice and laughter clips which captured the vibe of the show. There were some things to enjoy, especially for a fan of the old show, but it was just clunkier than I would have liked and not compelling enough to recommend, even to series' fans. Uh, this is stupid, huh huh. 2/5.

#35 Beyond Eyes (PC)



Video games can express many different scenarios, conditions, emotions and circumstances. It's part of the reason I personally find them so compelling. They are a window into such a diverse breadth of potential experiences, and thus, ever-fresh. One of the more counterintuitive situations to express within this medium is that of blindness. To take on the task of conveying the sense of not seeing within the context of a visual format is a tall order. But that's exactly what the game Beyond Eyes attempted to convey. It's a tale of a little girl who lost her sight in a fireworks accident and her journey to find her missing cat. The manner in which her impairment is expressed to the player is in the fact that the environment doesn't display fully until she is in close enough proximity for touch and sound to illuminate her sense of her surroundings. The visual field is white until her senses allow for a feel for her environment. It works about as well as I could imagine this difficult translation could within the context of this visual medium. And I appreciated what it was trying to do, and what it did well. The problem for me, the player, who wants to have fun playing his games, is that the girl's movement is painfully slow. Granted, it makes sense, given the character. She has to move with care, especially in new environments. But, with controller in hand, it is more tedious than immersive. And this is coming from someone who thinks King's Field The Ancient City is an all-time classic, a series considered by many to be unacceptably ponderous in movement. Movement is SLOW. And this slow movement is compounded by the fact that the environments are unseen until you are in very close proximity to things, leading you to dead-end after dead-end while trying to navigate to a path that will lead your progress forward on your adventure. You can easily end up going in circles, again...at a snails pace, while searching for the proper route. It just irritated on a level that was palpable, accuracy of experience notwithstanding. I don't mind being enlightened in my gaming, in fact I really love games that try to show me something new. But I also play to enjoy myself, and I really struggled to do that here. The game is attractive in both its watercolor visuals and premise, but was handicapped - no pun intended - by the very condition it was trying to portray. An unfortunate 2/5.

#34 Jersey Devil (PS1)



The PS1 had some nice collectathon platformers in its day. Ape Escape, Crash, Klonoa and Spyro, among others, provided some of that nice comforting, venerable genre goodness. And having missed some games I had an interest in on the console within this genre, I decided to give Jersey Devil a try. After an animated introductory cinematic that failed to generate any real excitement, we're dropped into some levels for the tried and true platforming action. The titular Devil is nicely designed with horns, a pointy tail and wide devilish grin. He's a cool looking character and he certainly has the personality to carry a mascot platformer. He has a variety of moves from some standard jumping and punching/spinning as well as gliding, a la Spyro. The controls were serviceable if not great. They were a bit touchy though and I found myself making adjustments for my adjustments as the game lacked that tight responsiveness that I prefer in this (or any other) genre. Additionally, the camera, as is often the case in some older games, was especially problematic. You could adjust it manually on the X axis with the triggers, although the adjustments were slower than I would have liked. It was easy to find yourself strafing around an enemy only to lose track of them as the automatic camera failed to position properly and your slowly spinning adjustments lagged behind. More frustrating was the inability to look up and down. That is always a significant ding for me in games where camera control is part of the equation. All in all, it didn't do enough to differentiate itself from being a standard platformer in terms of design, and the execution was also lacking enough finesse to grade out as average. It's not a terrible game, but it can't measure up to other offerings in either the category or on the console. It had potential, but just didn't rise up to the task. 2/5.

#33 Elderborn (PC)



I picked up Elderborn in a Humble Bundle and was curious about it because I had heard it described as a mix of Doom and Dark Souls. I watched some videos and it looked like a fun first-person-melee type of game, and if it captured the flavor of the Souls series in any meaningful way, I knew I'd love it. There isn't much in the way of narrative delivery. You are plopped into this world and the carnage begins. There is lore to find that adds flavor if you are so inclined, but I didn't find it very interesting, so the brunt of the responsibility for my enjoyment fell to the gameplay and atmosphere. As to the latter, there was a nice heavy-metal soundtrack to put you in the mood, and the environments were fairly "metal" and dark as well. But the layout of the levels was often confusing and poorly thought-out in my opinion. You could easily find yourself all turned around and wind up back where you started in a circular sort of maze, as if you were lost in the wilderness trying to find your way out only to end up where you began. In addition there were quite a few instant death traps that would take your experience and send you back to the last fountain you'd saved at, a la the bonfires in Dark Souls. (You could also retrieve experience by returning to the spot where you'd died as another nod to that series.) I just didn't enjoy the structure of the maps much at all. As to the gameplay, you have a variety of weapons which you can level up - in addition to some perks for your character as you progress, but the core combat was just lacking any excitement. I found it repetitive and tedious most of the time. Come in close, attack, back off and repeat. If you're dealing with a shielded enemy, kick the shield back, attack, repeat. Overall there just wasn't any pizazz to the fundamentals of the game, and when you add in the lackluster elements already mentioned, I found myself pretty disappointed overall. It's not an awful game, but it really failed to reach the potential I'd hoped for leading up to my time with controller in hand. 2/5.

#32 Hellblade : Senua's Sacrifice (PC)



Having dedicated most of my gaming time this year to older games, I found myself wanting to experience something with more modern spit-shine and glitz. I was perusing my backlog and noticed Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. I knew it had garnered a lot of praise, and I always found it attractive and interesting from what little I'd seen, so I said "Why not?" I remembered playing a few other games from Ninja Theory in the past on the PS3; Heavenly Sword, Enslaved and DmC : Devil May Cry. I don't consider any of them classics, but I did enjoy them all, so that gave me the final push to go ahead and fire it up.

I was initially kind of stunned at the graphical fidelity, having acclimated to predominantly older games for so long. It was gorgeous, despite the bleak setting. Senua, in particular, stood out with some great facial animation and just a really compelling character design in my view. The environments were also well-made and the Norse mythology was a nice layer and backdrop. I was very curious to see Senua live out this adventure. Her character was so tortured, and mentally-ill apparently, and the tone was very heavy making for the possibility of some intense drama. So I carried on for a while with great optimism, however...

Some glaring issues cropped up fairly quickly for me. Most egregious was the structure of the game and means of interaction. The bulk of progress was made by finding and aligning Norse runes/symbols that appeared on doors and were also hidden within the levels natural geometry. When you discovered all the symbols on the door also expressed within the level geometry, the door would unlock and you would progress. These puzzles ranged from boring and tedious to aggressively unfun. I found many of them to just be really poorly designed and implemented and left me with a real sour taste in my mouth - in contrast to the presentation. There was also combat with enemies that occurred fairly frequently, and while not awful, it was perfunctory and lacking any real depth. It felt as if it was more of a forced "interactive" part of the narrative than anything of substance. Ninja Theory have always been strong on presentation, and this was no exception. I just found the meat of the game to be lacking any real enjoyment and aggravating at times. I can see why many loved it, and I surely loved some elements, but overall it was a disappointment and I wouldn't recommend it. I'm not the type of person to do this sort of thing, but this game is one I can see people enjoying more watching a youtube walkthrough than actually sitting down with controller in-hand. 2/5.

[crimson_tide]

Huh, shame Hellblade ended up so low on your list. I might just watch a playthrough like you suggested, I certainly wouldn't be able to deal with the combat. I am a Jersey child and that is NOT the Jersey Devil. I refuse. Plus, I hate most collectathons . Beyond Eyes sounds really intriguing. Jackie Chan on the NES was a low key action platformer classic, shame it didn't work out for my man on the PS1 And I remember my best friend in high school lived next door and he had the SNES beavis and I had the Genesis. We quickly shelved the SNES one and focused on the Genesis one...which to be frank we also shelved before getting those Gwar tickets. But we liked the puzzle action pay style vs the SNES pure action beat em up style romp. In fact, we did the same thing with Animaniacs on the Genesis (which we did beat!) because that was again puzzle action instead of a the pure action focus of the SNES game. I miss when there were different versions of the same game across consoles. Shame they don't do that anymore. And it sounds like that Aurelia game just ain't for us, we clearly aren't the audience. Keep em coming izzy, this list is always a treat !

[isthatallyougot]

Gwar tickets.

Gwar, huh, huh.

I miss when there were different versions of the same game across consoles. Shame they don't do that anymore.

Yeah, me too.

Keep em coming izzy, this list is always a treat !

Thanks. Will do. I'll dole it out several per day. It gets tedious doing too many at once. My attention span starts waning.

[Phaseknox]

I’m enjoying your detailed well written opinions and reviews of the games that you played throughout the year as always, but I strongly disagree with you about Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. It was my third favorite game of 2017. Everything about it was appealing to me, I enjoyed every minute of it. I’m sorry that it didn’t appeal to you the same way, but #32 on your list and a 2 out of 5 score... ouch!

[isthatallyougot]

I’m enjoying your detailed well written opinions and reviews of the games that you played throughout the year as always, but I strongly disagree with you about Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. It was my third favorite game of 2017. Everything about it was appealing to me, I enjoyed every minute of it. I’m sorry that it didn’t appeal to you the same way, but #32 on your list and a 2 out of 5 score... ouch!

Yeah, I remember you really enjoying that one. I expected you'd take note, ha. What can I say? It didn't do it for me, despite the wonderful presentation - especially Senua herself. Clearly I'm the outlier based on critical and player response.

[isthatallyougot]

#31 Alice In Wonderland (DS)



I love Alice in Wonderland and all explorations of the mystical and the surreal, anything that stretches the borders of "reality". I find those borders particularly loose and flexible in my own experience and so I find I can relate easily to those who don't experience life in rigid, purely materialistic terms. Given that, I'm always willing to give games that tread that territory an opportunity, so I tried out Alice in Wonderland for the DS. I had already played and enjoyed American McGee's Alice and Madness Returns a few years ago. In this entry we're embodying a variety of characters with different puzzle-solving abilities within this universe on what amounts to an escort mission, carrying Alice along. Almost the entirety of the experience is controlled via the stylus, both in terms of movement, puzzles and the simplistic combat. Everything works well enough, and it would be a bit silly of me to complain about stylus-dominant gameplay on a device that is designed around such an interface, but I did find myself missing more conventional controls. The graphics didn't offend, but they bordered on monochrome with minimal use of color overall, and aside from the adequate animation, I didn't find them particularly attractive. The soundtrack, on the other hand, was appropriately moody, if minimal. Overall, despite my love for the source material, I just struggled to be drawn into this exploration of Lewis Carroll's universe. It was overly simplistic and just missing anything to really make it engaging. It's not a bad game, but I really wouldn't give it a strong recommendation. I wouldn't call it pure shovelware, but it only just crosses that modest bar. 3/5.

#30 Moon (DS)



Despite never playing either title, I've always been interested in Moon and Metroid Prime Hunters for the Nintendo DS. In terms of the latter, I love the franchise, and in regards to the former, I just love sci-fi and the setting seemed really interesting. But beyond those reasons, I've always been curious about these two titles on the DS because they are first-person shooters, a genre which, on the surface, doesn't seem to lend itself to the controls available on that wildly successful handheld. Without 2 sticks, the combination of movement and camera control/aiming seems to be an unwieldy proposition, so my curiosity was tickled for that reason alone. Well I took the plunge and fired up Moon to see how this problem was tackled, and I'm happy to report that in terms of controls, they've managed to find a workable, if not entirely comfortable, solution. Character movement is handled with the d-pad and camera control and weapon aiming are handled with the stylus, while weapon firing is assigned to the left-trigger. (or right - it's swappable depending on your handedness, which was a nice touch) Now I'll let you mentally position hands upon the DS to imagine how that might feel. Yes, it's a bit awkward. I found that playing with my knees propped up to utilize my right leg as a resting post for the right side of the DS seemed to work best for overall stabilization and comfort. But minus that adjustment, the controls were perfectly functional and responsive, and pretty much the best solution available, given the options on the console. So, while it might not be ideal, it was satisfactory and didn't get in the way of experiencing the game.

As for the game itself, you find yourself on the Moon (naturally) investigating investigating a strange hatch upon the surface of Earth's satellite. To be brief, there is much more to things than initially appears of course, and those for whom you work know more than what you were made privy to. So you make your way through various maps and discover the mysteries hidden beneath (and upon) the surface. Most of the narrative takes place through text boxes from communications with others on the mission and in-game terminals found throughout the maps. There are also a sprinkling of brief cut scenes that add flavor and atmosphere at key moments. The presentation was nice. The graphics were really well-done, hardware considerations applied, and the frame-rate was a smooth 60. Technically Moon was quite the feat.

In terms of the nuts and bolts, you wander these subterranean hallways and encounter a variety of enemies and bosses. Most of the regular enemies are floating mechanical orbs and dispatching them is simply a matter strafing and firing. Granted you could say that about many shooters, but things felt really vanilla here and mechanically just wasn't that exciting. Gun-play aside, you acquire a little remote-controlled droid early on in the game which is used to access tunnels and duct-work that are too small for the main character. Usually these excursions involve activating points (through firing the robots weapons) that unlock doors blocking the main character's progress. All of this felt like busy work honestly and did little to enhance the experience. I grew tired of finding blocked paths that had to be deactivated via the bot, and it just wasn't very fun game design due to its repetition and simple nature.

All in all, Moon did provide some nice atmosphere and excellent performance on the little handheld that could, but gameplay itself was lacking any real spice that would lead to strong engagement, and I found myself wishing some more creativity and variety could have been applied to the fundamentals. It's not bad, but could have been better with some attention to detail. Everything felt pretty run-of-the-mill, minus the technical aspects. 3/5.

#29 Ghosthunter (PS2)



Having not played anything from the PS2 era as the year progressed towards its final stretch, I found myself in danger of breaking a streak I hope to continue as long as I'm a gamer. I've played at least one PS2 title every year since the release of the console, which I bought on launch day in what seems like a lifetime ago. I still have a large (sealed) PS2 backlog that I want to experience in addition to many games I don't own that I still want to try. As Halloween approached, I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to give Ghosthunter a chance. What could be more Halloween than chasing ghosts? So I took an opportunity to both imbibe the spirit of the season and keep my PS2 streak going.

I have to admit that I dove in with a bit of trepidation. Having played MediEvil on the original PS1 and Primal earlier on the PS2, I can't say that I've found myself a fan of the developer (Studio Cambridge). But Ghosthunter always had an appeal since it first came out, and I'm always open to giving second chances. You play as Lazarus Jones, a rookie police officer who is sent to a rundown high school following a report of trouble. Some students and staff have apparently been done-in and in the process of investigating the crimes, you unwittingly release a group of imprisoned ghosts that had been harbored in some vessel in the bowels of the school. The capture of these ghosts and the consequent unraveling of the mystery concerning how they connect with the tragedy at the school is the crux of the matter. So off you go to bust some ghosts. And it does, in fact, have some of the flavor of that other ghost-busting property from mainstream cinema. You carry a device that allows you to hoover up these spirits once they've taken enough damage via one of your numerous weapons. But I have to say that the actual mechanics of the game were very bland. The shooting worked, but was very uninspired and just lacked any energy in terms of mechanical engagement or excitement. The presentation was actually quite nice graphically, much like the other games I've played from this studio. The visuals were sharp and compare favorably with the peers of its day, but the narrative had no real pull either, and I found myself disinterested in what was happening in this world. It had a campy/spooky mix which, in theory, could be very nice, but the execution left me wanting. Overall Ghosthunter reminded me very much of Studio Cambridge's other work - plenty of technical skill and excellent visual presentation without any real soul or fun factor. It's not an awful game, but I really struggled to mine the fun from this stone. If this studio (if they still existed) got some help in the actual nuts and bolts department and learned how to incorporate interesting gameplay into their creations, they'd have made some real classics. Sadly, they're forever relegated to the 'style over substance' category in my experience. A soft 3/5.

#28 Motor Toon Grand Prix (PS1)



Good cart racers are always a good time. You get the thrill of racing without all the stuffiness attached to more serious genre examples. The PS1 is home to one of the best in Crash Team Racing, and I was aware of another entry in this style for a long time in the form of Motor Toon Grand Prix from the developers of the much beloved (and more grounded) Gran Turismo. Per genre conventions, there are numerous cartoony characters/vehicles and tracks, and there are pads to drive over to impart a variety of power-ups to cause some chaos in the chase for first place. Visually everything has a really nice look. Everything is bright and colorful and moves at a nice frame rate. There's a pretty good sense of speed as well that can be enhanced with boost pads and turbo bonus items. In terms of the bonus items, you accumulate them by driving over dollar sign pads and when activated it starts a spinning wheel in the upper right corner of the screen which must be stopped via a button press. If you're able you can glance in that direction while driving and might get lucky if your timing is good, landing the power up of your choosing. My favorite was an item that stopped time for all the other racers for a couple seconds while you gained ground, but it didn't always appear in the wheel and was pretty rare to get. As for the racing itself, it functioned well enough, but I found the controls to be too loose for many of the characters. There is a wild degree of variance between each of them, and the ones with the best speed are very loose and slow to respond in the control department. I much preferred driving a slower but tighter controlling character, but in courses with any significant stretches of straight-aways, it was tough to win on any difficulty above normal because they just couldn't keep up. Exacerbating the loose feeling controls was the graphical touch that had your car bend and sway in conjunction with your movements on the controller. While it looked whimsical and entertaining from a presentation standpoint, it added to the loose feeling of guiding your vehicle and I didn't enjoy that sensation. And in regards to difficulty, anything above normal was very challenging, and not in a way that made me want to continue playing. It felt as if you had to be perfect to win some of the races. Maybe I missed some shortcuts on tracks to help even the playing field, but it was really quite tough once you upped the difficulty level. Overall MTGP was a decent entry in the kart racing genre, but it fell far short of Crash Team Racing or Mario Kart - the kings of this type of game in my opinion. Not bad, but Polyphony Digital moved onto better things with Gran Turismo in my view. 3/5

[canedaddy]

Your write-ups are the best. So good, in fact, that I'll read them even if I know there's zero chance I'll ever play the game.

The only one so far that I've played is Hellblade, and I found it very irritating. I really liked the other Ninja Theory games I've played, Heavenly Sword and Enslaved. This had some interesting elements but it annoyed me so much that I bailed on it.

[isthatallyougot]

Your write-ups are the best. So good, in fact, that I'll read them even if I know there's zero chance I'll ever play the game.

The only one so far that I've played is Hellblade, and I found it very irritating. I really liked the other Ninja Theory games I've played, Heavenly Sword and Enslaved. This had some interesting elements but it annoyed me so much that I bailed on it.

See, I'm not crazy. I felt exactly the same. I very much enjoyed Heavenly Sword, Enslaved and DMC: Devil May Cry, but Hellblade was infuriating in its structure to me. Maybe it's an old man thing...although phase...although phase might actually be female. (jk phase)

[Phaseknox]

The only one so far that I've played is Hellblade, and I found it very irritating. I really liked the other Ninja Theory games I've played, Heavenly Sword and Enslaved. This had some interesting elements but it annoyed me so much that I bailed on it.

See, I'm not crazy. I felt exactly the same. I very much enjoyed Heavenly Sword, Enslaved and DMC: Devil May Cry, but Hellblade was infuriating in its structure to me.

I never implied that you were crazy for not liking it, we all like and dislike things for our own personal reasons. It appealed to me immediately and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, but I also realize that it’s not for everyone. It’s especially not something that I expected cane to like, so it doesn’t surprise me that he didn’t like it. But I thought that you (izzy) might like it, at least more than you did anyway. I think that Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West are better, but I like it more than DmC: Devil May Cry.