Video Game Experience : Personal and Unbiased

Completed - Far Cry 5 With its own cast of multiple unique bosses tied to seperate regions, Far Cry 5 offers four epic and intense game finales instead of one,but the journey to these isn't always pleasant. Having your own Roster and  matching music with the different themes of every region are steps forward. Sparing these, the game doesn't offer any major upgrade and has its own set of drawbacks : flawed flying mechanics, unsatisfactory exploration and prolonged traversing, an impersonal story and ineffective depth to the perk and hunting reward system to name a few. Far Cry 5 in three words would be : Quantity over Quality. If you have played any far cry game released from 3, then in a way you have experienced them all, except only Far Cry 3 seems to have a balanced flow of the main campaign with its open world. Ironically, the definition of insanity very well applies to ubisoft's practice of exploiting their same formula in videogames.

Completed : Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time. Having completed the other two parts of the PS2 era trilogy long back on Sony's handheld versions, Sands of time was the only part I was missing. The PS3 port with no improvements whatsoever, manages to weaken the experience with inconsistent audio ranging from unhearable cutscenes to annoying in-game voices. A shame as it's one of the key ingredients in setting the tone of the game. Sands of time hasn't aged particularly well with its age old camera and movement issues. But somewhat resembling ICO in its atmosphere along with the thrill of an action game, it remains a classic combination of time sensitive platforming, tricky puzzles and its iconic trademark : the time reversal mechanic. This winning formula engulfed in the Prince's eternal tale with magical moments as well as frustrating sequences hold up very well today.

Completed : Yakuza 0 The yakuza series had been on my watch from long. Needles to say, it is worth a punch for anyone who owns a playstation. Not the cleanest of experiences, especially for someone who doesn't like to hold the controller down for a lengthy period and yakuza makes you do that plenty. Yes, frustrating at times but exceptionally effective, charging for an emotional rollercoaster full of twists and turns. The main story and missions are carved with thoroughly written characters and sequences. The build up in every chapter leads to finales that actually feel personal and epic putting most games' main ending to bow down. Also,these greatly compliment the game's huge cast of memorable and unique personalities. The stories of our two charismatic playable characters,kiryu and Majima along with numerous antagonists to match, although completely different connect in the most dramatic fashion. Understandably, the excessive dialogues play

Completed : Bloodborne -  A Hunter's Nightmare. Prepare to Bleed! And I equally mean both the ways , such is the balance in the game separating it from everything else. My third 'Souls' game in spirit. There isn't much left to say from what I have already said about the sheer uniqueness of souls games and the plethora of emotions they inflict just through pure gameplay. And Bloodborne might not be a true 'souls' game and far away from the dark souls universe, but is almost every bit of what defines a souls game and more having its own charm. I  was no longer a deprived undead who had to cower behind a shield to progress, I was a hunter who was ready to bleed. Prior to starting Bloodborne, just the feeling of a souls themed game without a shield made me critical of my chances of survival. As it turned out, after overcoming the initial difficulty spike and getting accustomed to parrying,never looked back to a shield or other defensive tact

Completed : Sniper Elite 3 Have always loved the slow motion x-ray kill cams/bullet time where we can shoot eyeballs, lungs, intestine and most importantly testicles to name a few from long away with precise controlled shots. Even if the base shooting mechanics remain unchanged, the last shot of the game feels almost as satisfying as the first in the short six hour campaign. The heart rate and breath hold are vital too as they need to be maintained for a steady aim. For the physics conscious ,higher difficulties also include wind and gravity effects. The major changes from V2 include a more open approach and also a stealth system where relocating after every kill is the way to go which gets tedious very quickly. The more open approach does seem a way forward but it only provided resistance to get creative kills/spots which can be very frustrating to find as opposed to the greedy and straightforward way of quickly penetrating your targets. However ,the main conc

Completed : Shank (co-op mode) The first single screen Co-op game I had played in a long time. Made me remember how fun they are although doesn't do complete justice to the genre. Traditional beat em up side scroller with fluid modern combat and sharp comic style presentation. It not only fails to escape the problems of most beat em ups where the combat is bound to be repetitive after some time, but it also adds to these problems with lack of any progression and a few control issues of its own. Wish the whole main game was made for Co-op only instead of a short separate one. Individual special power ups and different abilities could have made coordination more appealing which was limited to only dividing the direction of attack and double team moves when needed. What made the grind worth it were well designed tough boss fights at the end of each mass-slaughtering level which required creativity, patience and finally lots of teamwork. Overall, Shank