Recent reviews by adsu

Haiku, The Robot wears its Hollow Knight inspiration on its sleeve, especially in the earlier stages of the game. A lot of enemies feel literally ripped straight out of Hollow Knight, the pogo swordsplay is here, and even the plot and objectives are near identical.

While Hollow Knight takes place in a dying world blighted by the mind virus of an angry god, Haiku takes place in a rusting world with a literal virus infecting the programming of its many robotic inhabitants. To reach the core of this infection, we must defeat three dreamers (or in this case, creators) to unlock a large vault.

Haiku speaks more to the folly of man and his ability to destroy in his insatiable hunger to create at the detriment of the planet. Something that definitely has no parallels to real life. Definitely.

But is it fun? Absolutely. Haiku may take a lot of queues from Hollow Knight, but it does so with evident love and skill. The game really comes into its own later into it. Enemies feel more original, biomes more distinct. Our toolkit of abilities is really quite fun to play with - in particular, the hook was exceptionally fun, and a lot more useful than its Hollow Knight counterpart. Rolling around in a ball never gets old either.

Haiku is a lot easier than its spiritual predecessor, and a lot shorter, but I'd say that's to its benefit. Its a much more accessible game as a result; definitely one of the most accessible Metroidvanias I've played. If Hollow Knight is a main course, Haiku is like a delicious dessert.

I'd recommend Haiku to any Hollow Knight fan eagerly awaiting the release of Silksong - but I'd also recommend it to those who felt Hollow Knight was a bit too difficult. This is an excellent game, and a blast to play.

A snuff video game that feels damn good to play. Even 30 hours in, the cathartic feeling of caving your enemy's face in never gets old.

only fun if you have friends and can tolerate janky early 2000s source games

Yes. I know what you're going to ask. How in God's name do you have 1400+ hours in Terraria? Well, the answer to that is that it was the only game that ran on my Mac when I was younger. My other, more well versed response would be that the sheer amount of content, playthrough variation and entertainment value this game has facilitated me through those dismal days of Apple for- literally - thousands of hours.

I know Terraria inside and out, I know its flaws as a game and mine as a player. The game attracts - from my experience - two niches of players: the loadout savants and the creators. Like Minecraft, Terraria offers players a large, open sandbox - every block can be alterred to your desire. Unlike Minecraft, Terraria's world is finite. To make up for this limitation, Terraria has a core progression - bosses, tiers of loot, etc. I personally play for this aspect - taking on challenges like class specific playthroughs and enjoying the role playing aspects the game offers. I completely neglect the aesthetic side of the game - much to the distaste of my friends. I can see a lot of potential for beautiful buildings and structures within the game, but I never invested any time into pursuing my inner Picasso.

with over 3000 items, Terraria is as robust as games come - especially at that incredibly modest price tag. As someone who has played the game for an obscene amount of time, I can say that missing all those potential social interactions was worth it.

Fallout New Vegas takes the engine that 3 had, removes all the problems - the poor writing; lack of impactful choices and hard decisions; urine color filter and even the combat (to an extent). However, from a gameplay standpoint, the game is far from perfect. It still suffers the limitations of the fallout 3 engine, but I'd argue the story and setting make up for this in excess.

The game world may not be as large as 3's but it is packed with content. Each location in the game is tied to a quest, be it large scale or small. There are 3 major factions in the game, each with their own nuances - no definitive "goodies" and "baddies", there are large downsides to all three making the choice of which you'll side with even more difficult. As for the improvements to the combat, New Vegas offers more variety with weapon modifications, and the ability to aim down iron sights - something strangely absent from its predecessor.

As any good RPG should, New Vegas allows you to completely customise your character with excellent opportunities for roleplaying - unlike Fallout 4 where your characters life, goals and morals are all defined from the start. The story, while not an over the top "save the world" scenario, is still very involving. You aren't the hero of the story, merely a small weight to push the balance in the favor of your chosen side - or your own. The DLC adds some backstory to the Courier - the player character - but not too much such that it intrudes on your roleplay.

As I mentioned, the combat of the game and many other aspects of the game are what bring this masterpiece down for myself and likely many others, nevertheless, the Mojave is a chapter of the Fallout series you won't want to miss - especially if you love the intricate and nuanced stories of the very same creators of the original two games.

Stick Fight is a groundbreaking take on the pseudo-competitive party game formula. Like Mario Party? Like ruining friendships with all those you hold dear? Then this is the game for you! With intentionally jank controls that put a hard cap on the skill-ceiling, its near impossible to find that *one* friend who is significantly better than you. With charming albeit minimal visuals, Stick Fight is engaging, fun and most importantly... ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

When I first played this game, I was very surprised by the abundance of quality content within, despite being in Alpha. For it's asking price, it's definitely worth every penny, even if progress of the game has been halted by the developer.