Uncharted 1 is unique in the fact that while yes, it’s heavily inspired from Tomb Raider and Indy, it feels so different from the other Uncharted games it’s almost like its own thing.

Definitely the early beginnings of the cinematic Sony exclusive game genre, and especially this one. It’s got its cliche’s and its nods, but has so much charm.

That zombie section IS funny af tho, the games never really go that direction again too

Spoilers for Uncharteds 2 & 3:
The following two sequels still rely on supernatural aspects in the final sections though. UC2 also had monsters, and UC3 had regular humans acquiring evil dangerous powers.

Very true for uncharted 2 + 3, but I meant so in the style of goofiness of “Nazi Zombies” lol.

With Tekken 8 finally here, I feel like I should address the elephant in the room.

Mortal Kombat 1 (2023)

Played on Xbox Series S

For years, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with NRS. On one hand, they’ll make a product out the gate rich with content, quality of life features that other games in the genre don’t have, and glorious presentation. The other hand, the gameplay makes one questionable decision that (usually) f***s it all up in the end. Mortal Kombat 9, Injustice, Mortal Kombat X, Injustice 2, & Mortal Kombat 11 have all suffered from this fate. Does that make these games bad? For the longest time I thought so, but Mortal Kombat 1 had me rethink things.

Despite the name (which is dumb), MK1 is a continuation of the long winded story of Mortal Kombat being a direct sequel to its predecessor, MK11. New timeline, new backstories, and a whole direction they take these characters. The story mode is actually some of the best stuff NRS has ever done characterization wise. Johnny, Kenshi, Kung Lao, Raiden, Kitana, Mileena, Sindel, Repitle & f***ing BARAKA all get a spotlight. With characters like Johnny we’ve seen plenty of, but Baraka from being usually just a jobber fight to a man cursed with a disease, trying to defend the only people he has left is really incredible to see. The second half of the story doesn’t pay the same respect to the other characters introduced and it pretty much drivels into typical MK nonsense. Kind of a bummer, but the story mode isn’t horrible.

Gameplay wise, it’s really cool. NRS tried so hard for years to make custom variations work, and all it really took for them to make the gameplay great was just simplifying the move list & dropping variations entirely. Each character feels like a “definitive” version of themselves and in conjunction with the kameo system, allows the player to express themselves freely this time. The Kameo system gives new ways to play without sacrificing a playable characters core gameplay. While it’s not exactly perfect at the moment, with some tweaks for how ambushes could work, it could be so off the rails as a tag game should be.

But that’s the thing. This game SHOULD be a whole lot more. Because outside of its gameplay, MK1 doesn’t have anything else of value to offer. Invasions started out as a mode that was fine into a repetitive mess that’s seasonal rewards are not worth the time and headache, an item shop with ludicrous prices and bundles, cosmetic customization has been extremely pulled back, the Krypt is straight up gone in favor of the shrine, playercards and icons are very cheap looking and void of any artwork, and there’s so much more.

You couldn’t tag moves at launch despite being a feature in NRS games since MKX. There were moves that characters had that were not in the movelist (which they weren’t secret moves, they genuinely weren’t there). A good number of brutalities didn’t work because they weren’t in the game yet despite being unlocked. Countless bugs within the game combo systems, so much so that even the CPU cannot complete the combo trials in demo mode. The game has slowdown and massive frame drops in Imvasions (which used to affect all modes of the game), battle intros we’re completely gone from arcade mode and online, and when they added both in an update, if you are to skip intros online, it would cause desync issues. Now desync issues just happen constantly whether you skip intros or not, making online almost unplayable at certain times. There’s no crossplay (which is apparently coming). There’s been almost no communication from NRS & the community creating such a huge mess and confusion. Capcom & Bandai Namco have been very vocal with their audiences, and I really wish NRS would do the same.

I really am scratching the surface on this one. To release a game so blatantly unfinished and empty is such a slap in the face to its audiences. It’s becoming more and more common with video games these days, and these companies really are getting away with it. I know not all of this is on NRS, WB definitely has some to blame here too. But to get a game so rich with love & quality like Street Fighter 6, to get something like this from the most popular and best selling fighting game franchise is laughable.

It makes me so sad that a game this fun is so barebones and dry everywhere else. I hated MK11, and even I gotta admit that game actually felt like a full product rather than some early access ripoff. I’m gonna stick around until Kombat Pack 1 is over and pray for a Street Fighter V type comeback, but if NRS doesn’t step it up, it’s looking like this gen’s Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite. A game that could’ve really been something.

4.5/10. If you’re looking for a fighting game to play and last you awhile, please pick up Street Fighter 6 or Tekken 8.

So depressed, so tired, and so angry @ChiraqPalestine

Thank you for your service sir, Injustice 3 has a a lot to answer for

it won’t they are not moving to unreal 5 for it currently . Likely staying unreal 4

I am all of those things as well that you list cause it was my first triple a game in credits . With too much complacency when I got that Kobe in me

Like I signed nda so I can boundary so much but some of these games genuinely need a documentary of what happens behind the scenes and how much time is wasted .

Wherever you go next game industry wise, hope it keeps you some wiggle room to have your voice heard. Too many yes men and complacency in the industry.

lol my second to last day there was a meeting about online with all major people and I asked to go. My boss said “ why you are done tomorrow “ . I still care man . I went to the meeting . If they don’t land cross play it genuinely feels like so many hours of my life were for that . I would have genuinely damn near preferred crunch or ability to work at all hours of the day . More devs in office. ( much is work from home outsourced or all over ) than drop that . I didn’t go to the launch party when it occurred I genuinely felt there was nothing to celebrate

Kinda sad that the modern fighting game renaissance stemmed from this studio, and to see all it’s competition step up to the plate while they just sit on their hands breaks my heart

Nah they need to be humbled man . I pray the fighting game community humbles them so they can’t just coast .

Playing Far Cry 3 for the first time. What is this white savior, magical negro, noble savage bullshit

How you got a character with the stereotypical "African" accent, then some black dudes sounding like they came from Australia

Gameplay is cool but this story is all kinds of wack. I genuinely feel uncomfortable as a black man playing through this s***. Vaas needs to reappear expeditiously because he is by far the best thing about this game rn.

Assassin's Creed II
This is fye

Finished assassin's Creed II.
Game was great. Idk why I kept waiting to use the apple of Eden at some point near the end lmao.

U play the og?

yessir awhile ago. loved it and loving the remake, about more than half way through

In the same boat tryna finish this up in time for rebirth love the combat

same man!! it’s very addicting

Blasphemous 2 on switch

anyone else playing undisputed boxing???

Playing through Quantum Break and enjoying it but the constant buffering that occurs while streaming the live-action episodes is so annoying. I wish they could just be directly downloaded.

Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen

I enjoyed this a lot, not only is it good but its aged pretty well too; I never felt like I was fighting with the controls and the character movement and attack animations were surprisingly smooth and didn’t frustrate me at all.

The highlight of this game has to be the combat; the player themselves doesn’t really have any interesting toys in their toolkit but you do have the ability to climb larger enemies and start dismembering certain parts of their body which is a really interesting way to handle larger enemies because any other game you will just be hitting the enemies ankles until they just die unceremoniously.

In one instance I was fighting a Griffin when I jumped up, managed to grab hold unto its head as it took off into the skies and was just thrusting the sword into it until it panicked and crashed back into the ground; easily one of my favourite moments in the game that whole sequence just looked beautiful.

Main complaint about this game is that the UI and inventory management system is pretty dogshit, I feel like the game puts an emphasis on “combining” items (which is essentially just crafting) with the amount of materials you find in the world but god forbid I have to click into every single item to see what it combines into - this whole crafting experience could be a lot better if they made a single menu where you can easily combine items you previously combined before and show you a list of items you can currently combine.

I did the beta, but I didn't buy the game
Is the game good ?