The Toad's Burrow

     I'll be the first to admit I'm not the biggest Guardians of the Galaxy fan. When the first movie came out I didn't watch it, then when the second movie came out I started seeing all of this baby Groot merchandise and it ardently annoyed the moody teen inside me. But people just kept on talking about how great the movie was, so I watched it, and felt it was fine, but cringed pretty hard at Chris Pratt's Starlord doing a dance-off. Yet, I have been in a comic mood, and I'm much more accepting now as an adult I'd like to think. I'm trying to be more accepting of pieces of media that are just earnestly themselves, as cringe as they might be, because I'm pretty sick of self-referential media that just has characters self-deprecate for 80% of the dialogue. So let's talk about this game.     I will say this immediately off the bat, not in a bad way, but just so you understand what you're getting into. This is basically just an amped-up version of a...

    I remember when I first added this game to my Steam wishlist. It was a couple years ago before the game was even released, yet still in early access. I just wanted to keep tabs on it since it was far from being the fully fledged game you see today. After all everyone kept on drawing comparisons to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, a game from one of my favourite franchises of all time. So how couldn't I resist it. So I waited, and I waited, until eventually a summer sale came on and I decided you know what? Maybe I will buy this game. So I bit the bullet, and I found myself honestly? A little underwhelmed. Let's talk about it.     Look look, I already know how I have a strong tendency to write these reviews, I spend a good 70% of it nitpicking the game, then spend very few words actually praising it, yet it still ends with a good rating. Even still, I truly do mean believe this when I say that the only reason I'm a bit tepid in my praise is has the bones for some...

      Let me tell you the story of a younger me. One that spent his cash like it was truly disposable. He had few expenses, and few other hobbies save for video games, and so he loved to spend his money on Steam key websites, going for the "10 mystery game packages" and many others of a similar ilk. Eventually, at some point, he had more games than he could ever conceivably play. Hundreds of Steam games bought cheaply, on an account that was now worth thousands more than he had ever invested in it. The reason I tell you all of this? If you haven't guessed it by now, Sunset Overdrive  was one of those games that lay dormant in my Steam library for years. Until now. Let's talk about it.     I will say, this game might be short, but it's a damn good use of 30 hours. I can say it with my chest that I would wholeheartedly recommend my game. Yes, there are absolutely caveats to it, but I'd argue they're kinks that could easily be ironed out, rather than ugly sta...

      This review is going to be a little different, in the sense that I'm reviewing a rom-hack, but also because I'm just going to be reviewing Pokemon Emerald in general as well. Part of this is because I've been slowly (and I do mean very slowly) going through all of the older Pokémon generations again, and another part of it is because this game is very intentionally faithful to the original games. I don't really mind reviewing the game, after all when I first started out emulating Pokémon Emerald  was one of the first games I played, and I've had a very on and off relationship with rom hacks in my life anyways. And because I just kept on playing variants upon variants of this game, I have very little recollection of ever actually finishing it. I'm pretty sure I must have at one point, but for some reason a memory of actually finishing this game eludes me. Let's talk about it.     I'll start off with the "Seaglass" part. The art style is fa...

      I mean look, I've heard about this game for so long, I've wanted to play it for so long, so to finally have the chance to play it, it was tantalizing. But now that I've played it, I don't know what to make of it. That's not to say I thought Cyberpunk 2077 was a bad game, nor that I won't play a sequel, but this game felt less polished/cohesive than I would have thought from CDPR say compared to The Witcher 3. I mean this game is certainly getting at least an 80 from me, that's for sure, but does it belong in my pantheon of greatest open-world RPG's of all time? It's hard to say, so let's talk about it.     The first thing I need to get out of the way is that the current iteration of Cyberpunk 2077 , so post 2.0 with the Phantom Liberty DLC is basically two different versions of the game stitched to each other.  What I mean by this is that you'll see a lot of guides reference older versions of the game, and there are a lot of mechanics t...

      Man, where do I even start with this game? Disco Elysium is a daunting game to begin sure. I, like probably so many others, bought this game because it was on sale for around 3 dollars Canadian, and because anyone who comes across this game seemingly comes around with such glowing reviews. And then, you wait, it just lies in your Steam library and you think about playing it and these thoughts start to pop up. "Ooh, but I heard it's a very political game I don't know if that's what I want to play right now," "I heard there are so many ways to play this game it's kind of daunting," and it's all true. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't play it, it just means that it's a lot, and you should give it the respect it deserves.     Then you start up the game and it's a lot. I'm not saying I can't read, or don't mind it, but this game is very much like a choose your own adventure book, it takes the name "visual novel...

       I was looking back at my original review for the first game, and I think it's safe to say that this game is an improvement on all fronts. I do really feel that this might end up being one of my favourite games of all times. I mean I literally spent over a month playing this game, and ended up with nearly 160 hours in it. At one point I was basically playing the game 40 hours a week, almost as if it was this whole other job I had to make sure I got in every day. I think it is safe to say that I may have been addicted to this game. But why shouldn't I be? I find it hard to find faults with this game, any faults I have are largely small qualms or involve pacing, and by the end I started spacing out my playthroughs just so I could savour the last bit. So let's talk about it.     Let's get the bad out of the way first because I think it's relatively minor. One of my main gripes with the first game was that by the end the combat was largely oriented around...

       You know we've gone too far as a society when game publishers are so desperate to make a safe and easy buck that they're deciding to reboot this game series. I'm sorry but there's no other way to put it, this game stinks. It's like hilariously mediocre, and the best part is? there's no redeeming qualities. It's all just bland, run of the mill, open-world RPG slop. I'm sorry I know people love this, and developers put their heart and soul into making this game, but there is nothing about this game that stands out, and I can't fathom why they made two more sequels to this game. It has to be nostalgia, there's no other way. I am legitimately baffled that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion  released 2 years after this game, because it makes it feel like it's 20 years ahead. Let's talk about it.     The combat in this game is so awful. It's so simple, it's so basic, it's so easy, yet somehow it still sucks. Not only is it hilari...

      I'll admit, this game took a bit to really get going, and it took me longer to complete than I thought. But in terms of just relatively small, really contained games story games I must admit Control is pretty high up there. And the best part is? It's hardly even about the gameplay, it's about what most people usually consider the window dressing. The lore behind Control  is just really cool. The best part about this game is learning about the Federal Bureau of Control, all that they do, and all of the items/things they are constantly doing behind the scenes to keep the world running. Let's talk about it.     Let's get it right out of the way, I think combat might be one of the weaker elements of the game, but that's one of the only complaints I have about this game. I do think the service weapon is a cool concept. The only issue? It's only a single gun, and despite being your "main weapon" of choice, it's pretty much useless. That's n...

      I have finally finished this game. I'm going to be honest it took me a while to finish and commit to the entire game. Even after finishing and enjoying it, it's a very slow burn, and frankly your choices don't feel like they matter that much in this game. It is very much what I'd describe as a visual novel in the sense that you're basically just there for witness a story. Even still, this game was, surprisingly good? I mean this game is given out for free all of the time, and all things considered, if you like games in this genre (which I clearly do), why not give it a try? So let's talk about it.     I know the first thing that people are going to point out is the whole transgender aspect of this game, to which I say it's really not that big of a deal. While it certainly is a discussed aspect of the game, I feel like the stronger theme of this video game is just about trauma, and how it can affect different people. Like I'd argue Alyson definitely...

      After about ~50ish hours or so, I can confidently say I've done everything worth doing in Pokemon Legends: ZA  (not including collecting all of the final screws or the shiny charm because frankly both are there to just waste me time). I'm going to be honest, when this game first came out, I saw quite a few people dogging on it, and so I tried my hardest to enjoy this game as much as I could when I first started out. The issue is, the haters were kind of right. I'm not saying this is a bad game, but considering it's predecessor, I would call it far from a roaring success, more like a sophomore slump from a franchise that needs to figure out what the hell they want Pokemon to be about, because there seems to be a bit of an identity crisis, let's talk about it.     Though on a quick tangent I swore I wrote a review for Pokemon Legends: Arceus  when it came out and I was going to read it again before writing this one but I can't find it so I guess no...

      I did it, after spending basically all of October, and nearly 200 hours playing the game, I am satisfied with my Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom playthrough. Basically the only thing I didn't finish were some Korok seeds, the compendium, and some fabrics/schematics that ultimately didn't matter. Yet, I can't help but be reminded that it took me multiple attempts to actually get me into this game. It starts off pretty slow in the sky islands, and I really had to set aside this month to get back into things. I use the term "get back into" on purpose because this game very much feels iterative of Breath of the Wild  for better or for worse, but it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that there's this very clear push and pull between.     I mean can you hardly blame the developers? Open world games take forever to make, I'm looking at you Bethesda, but also BOTW also came out on the Wii U, and as of the writing of this review the Switc...

      I shall be the first to admit that I am a whore for Bethesda Game Studios games. I have way too many hours in both the Fallout  and Elder Scrolls  series by them. So the real question is, how much did I enjoy this game? The truth is less than I should have, and there's a couple reasons for that. Honestly, the short answer is if I hadn't already played this game I would have enjoyed it more, but I already did, and that's ok. I doubt this game would have been as successful if it wasn't already squeezing nostalgia out of any gamer who had their childhood defined by this game. I suppose the main issue was I was not one of those kids, so I have absolutely no nostalgia about this game.     Don't get me wrong, I liked Oblivion  when I first played it, but that was in like 2021, and honestly I've always been a Skyrim  man through and through. I suppose I would have enjoyed it more if the game was an actual remake compared to a remaster, though ...

      Look, I know in recent years, at least online Detroit: Become Human  has a bit of a reputation as a game that's a little too on the nose with its commentary. Look, I get it, it does kind of give off some 2016 liberalish vibe, not to say it's necessarily bad, but I would not call it a little nuanced. All of this to say that I did indeed come into this game with a little bit of a bias, I did chuckle when the first mission you go on with Markus has him wear a sash like a Jewish person in Nazi Germany and then ride the back of the bus like Rosa Parks. Honestly, it does feel like perhaps this society should have been more woke and did need some diversity hires to tell them how bad the optics are. Jokes aside, they quickly faded, because even in spite of the hamfisted themes the game is good and I managed to suspend my disbelief very quickly. I can also gladly say that I finished the game with everyone, sadly I didn't really believe in violence. So how was it all? ...