Recent reviews by Nicklebee

Good writing, acting, and a suitably spooky and body-horror plot that went places I didn't expect.

Disturbingly creepy, like Inside or Limbo made with creepy claymation.

"Okay I'll just make like one little change to this factory to optimize it..."
*Four hours later*
"Well. There goes my day."

Quacked a lot. Then shot a guy. Then I got shot and quacked. GOTY.

This is a really fun game. After beating the game in a co-op session with three other friends, I'm looking forward to playing it again. The levels are inventive and full of areas to explore, collectible ties to find and little jokes to get. Characters are simple but well-written in a Saturday-morning kind of style, with some good voice acting well-written dialogue.

Playing in co-op is a blast, and really well done too. You can assign different controls to different limbs (we played two PS3 controllers, a PS4 controller, and the keyboard/mouse), and keep them set the entire game or use 'roulette mode', where you switch limbs after every objective. Each player is assigned a color, so you can look at OctoDad, see that his left arm is green (for example), and know that you control his left arm. Lots of screaming at each other, pulling the titular dad in multiple directions, and in general just acting like a crazy drunkard.

The game is short, only about 2 or 3 hours long, but there are collectibles to find in the levels and completion times to beat, as well as the option to play through levels that other people have made. Worth every penny for a game that is genuinely creative in many ways.

Gone Home isn't a game in the traditional sense, and those looking for a mystery to unravel or a foe to defeat will walk away disappointed. What it is is a series of stories behind the family that you belong to, that you can discover for yourself. A distant sister, a struggling father, a successful mother, all have their own lives hidden away in the house they all live in. It's well-written, nuanced, and an journey into a family's story from the 90s, pieced together to discover on your own.

This is a review for the Stanley Parable. In this review, I hope to expose you to all the things that make The Stanley Parable enjoyable to play. You see, the point of reviews isn't quite so much to critique games, as otherwise this would be called a 'critique' of The Stanley Parable. From a purely consumeristic point-of-view, a review is there to give a consumer, ie: you, help for a very simple choice - should I (you) purchase and play this game, or should I let it languish on the store page forever, never to experience the spaces of my computer, so filled with games, and videos of various things (only you, the consumer, know what those things are), and maybe pictures of cats, because those always end up on computers.

Generally, the second paragraph is used to extol or castigate the virtues or issues (respectively) that the game contains. This review will focus mostly on the ability of the game to reveal to you the nature of choice in video games while being obvious and not-obvious at the same time, the superb writing, and the multitude of peculiar ways in which the game can reveal your death...or not? You see, that was this review avoiding a spoiler. Very important to do that, in reviews, lest you reveal all the cards in the game's hands before even letting the person play! And wouldn't that be an embarrassment! Yes it would.

A concluding paragraph is sometimes, but not always used, to sum up the review. Generally, it's hard to write something that doesn't sound hokey or cliched, with phrases like 'And in conclusion...' or 'It turns out that in the end...'. But in conclusion, it turns out that in the end the Stanley Parable lends itself quite well to a play through, being fun, unique, interesting, and different from anything else that's come before it, is what this review would say. And at the end, it's all about the final sentence, perhaps some pithy pun on the game's name, or some phrase containing the words 'fans of the genre will...'. A well-thought-out final sentence is extremely important to leave a good impression of the review. There's really no avoiding it.

This is a pretty cool game, with some annoying issues. You (and a few others if you play online) must complete a series of challenges to advance. You're afforded the choice of four different weapons - they all play quite differently and come with their own set of abilities and buffs. And each challenge gives you up to three crystals, and when you get a number of crystals, you get new abilities.

It's a pretty unique take on this type of game, as you can't really 'grind' to level up, at most you can get a couple new buffs to help yourself out, if you master previous challenges. Because of this, it comes down more to strategy and skill, and can become quite fun in some segments.

Sometimes, however, things can be a pain in the butt. Certain challenges or bosses seem to combine the most annoying parts of the game all in one, in seemingly unfair ways. And though the game says that it's balanced for either 1-4 players, more players simply make it easier in so many ways.

That said, I really enjoyed the game, when it wasn't being irritating, and would recommend it to others who are looking for a challenging title to play along with friends.

A better GTA game than the recent GTAs, Sleeping Dogs is a great sandbox game with some really excellent fighting mechanics (similar to the Batman: Arkham series), with a story that really brings characters to life, without any annoying missions that bring down the game. It's a fantastic buy, and worth every penny.