Recent reviews by Wingus Dingus

I don't love 3 like a lot of the fanbase. I think it's fine and it closed out the series nicely and they never made any other games, nope they sure didn't. Still worth it.

There's one mission that is infuriating because of the number of times the game slows your movement to a crawl while it feeds you dialog, and weird visuals, that don't require being slowed down. That's the worst and the person who decided that it was necessary needs to be fired, or hired again and then immediately fired.

LANs, pizza and Mountain Dew. You know what I mean.

Best story in the series. Fight me. Play with original visuals.

Yuck.

RELEASE VERSION Review: Baldur's Gate 3 is a really good game. Great turn based combat system with lots of fun classes and varied ways of using those classes. Many races to choose from to make your character. Larian have outdone themselves. That said, BG3 does have issues and more than a few patches are needed.

The character creator is mostly better than before release. No more mandatory lanky barbarians or fighters. The face choices were expanded a bit but there's just not enough variety for me. Hope to see either Larian or modders add to them. I also wish the hirelings system let you create your own party rather than just have a bunch of prebuilt choices to pick from.

Story time, kids! I actually think the story is OK overall. I love the way it begins, I really like the turns it takes in Act 2. I don't like the ending/s. I was mainly disappointed with Act 3. Admittedly I've only been through Act 3 once, it was bug riddled and some quests couldn't progress. All the big ones did though and there are just some things that end like a wet fart. Astarion's is probably the best one with Shadowheart's next. I actually do like the last battle sequence in Act 3 though, since it culminates in having people show up based on choices you've made. The Steel Factory is awful though, I hate it. The biggest problem with the story are the endings.

The endings, ah yes, the do option A or do option B. Biggest let down for me. The characters do have some "conclusions" to their personal story lines. Though that amounts to some dialogue right after the final choice and that's it. Not even a little paragraph telling you what becomes of them. Great. Apparently people snooping around in the files found that there was planned descriptions of what happens to the characters based on your/their choices but it was cut or left unfinished. A lot of people think Larian will end up doing a "definitive edition" like update to include things they ran out of time on and I hope they're right. People love what was done with Divinity Original Sin 2. So, here's to hoping, I guess.

Despite what falls apart for me at the end, the journey was just so good. I've done multiple runs but, other than my first, I stop once I'm at the Gate and just start a new journey. Do yourself a favor and play a Dark Urge character. It's the highlight of the "Origin" characters. Best dialogue, best spontaneous bloodbaths, neat gift if you give in to the urges. Love it and wasn't expecting it at all.

8/10, I hope there's more to come.

EARLY ACCESS Review: Hear me out. Even though I'm "Recommending" this I don't think you should buy it yet. Purely as it's Early Access (EA) and new patches erase all previous saved game data. Release is slated for 2023.

I think what is here is pretty good. There are still some bugs and it's obviously in EA so it's unfinished with Act 1 being the only content and you are limited to a max level of 4. Choices lead to different outcomes for the most part, whether this holds true all the way to multiple endings remains to be seen. The game itself is a Larian Studios homebrew of the DnD 5th Edition rule set. If that means anything to you or not I don't know, but I think it's perfectly fine.

Character creation feels super limited with appearances. Most faces look weird, hopefully they add more options at launch. Classes and races will be from the player's handbook and aren't all available yet, but there's some variety and it's fun to try them out.

I really hope this game turns into a solid foundation for Larian to build on. There seems to be a focus on providing a good amount of content as a base game. If that turns out to be the reality then I hope they add expansions for additional stories rather than just putting a sequel into the development cycle.

Update: I guess they actually patched it. Stunned and pleased.

The Port - The emulator that runs this port is not good. The performance is below that of the original PS1 as measured by Digital Foundry using actual data and not fanboys going "bUt It FeElS tHe SaMe1!!1!!11" It does not. The internal framerate not picked up by Steam's fps counter, which just displays "60" the whole time, is capping at limits BELOW that of the original PS1 release. These aren't opinions, there's no nostalgia, there's no fanboy BS, it's just an undeniably subpar port. I completed a full playthrough. It doesn't ruin the game but some locations feel terrible. Haven't experienced any crashes but some have.

The Game Itself - Chrono Cross is a game I have a love/hate relationship with. It is a direct sequel to my favorite game and I hate the direction it took the "Chrono Universe" in. I do love a few of the storytelling elements in it though and it has one of the best soundtracks in video game history. There's a very wide range of characters to acquire and experiment with, potential for making element builds and minmaxing for you tryhards. The battle system is a step back in my opinion but it is unique and they were trying something different. Overall, if you like old JRPGs then this will probably be a staple in your Top Whatever List of JRPGs for years to come.

Conclusion - If you want it officially as part of your Steam line-up, recommended. If you don't care about that and have access to it through other means, not recommended. I bought it through GMG for about $10 (discount + store credit) and if I spent more than that I would feel worse than I do. It needs fixes, probably won't get them because Square Enix has no integrity.

TL;DR Yes. It's great. Not sure why I decided to review this all these years later.

Where it began. The Rocksteady attempt, and success, at busting onto the scene with a big IP. Involvement from various actors from the best adaptation of Batman, Batman: The Animated Series, as well as a key role for its best writer, Paul Dini. This game is a well crafted, but not perfect, love letter to that series and it shows. The bios, illustrations, and voice tapes of several characters show just what huge Batman fans Rocksteady truly are. This game is worth playing, back then, now, and in the future. A little clunky compared to the titles that followed but truly worth it. If you are reading this and don't own this game for some reason, buy it. Do it now.

Truth be told, I am bored with games and came back to the Arkham series to find some passion. I didn't particularly like Arkham Knight and went back to it first to see if I still feel the same way and I do. That game dropped the ball by not bringing Paul Dini back. Hush was wasted entirely, Joker was all over it yet again, the Batmobile was ruined completely and recasting voices along with character redesigns made it feel out of place. A marketing lie that failed to live up to expectations. When I came back to Asylum it just felt right. This is great Batman content.

Still my favorite of the pixel based Final Fantasy games and second favorite game in the series overall. Love the story and characters. This version is fine, easy like the rest of the remastered versions but still a fun time. The biggest problem with this series of remasters is the credits. They take forever. I get it, you're proud of the team that worked on these, but for God's sake let us skip them if we've sat through them once on any of the games.

FF 3 is one of my top games in the series. My second favorite of the pixel based FF games behind 4. The magic went back to the uses system rather than mp and I still prefer it. Jobs were done fairly well and the level system was back to true form, from the awful one used in FF 2. Story is short and doesn't overstay it's welcome, something I really enjoy about older RPGs, but still interesting. Give it a go if you've never played it, it's worth it.

Final Fantasy 2 has more story to it than its predecessor. It's a fun time going back to these games through the new pixel remasters. I never got very far in FF2 because I don't like its "leveling" system, though I'm sure one look at the discussion board will have you knowing why. I stuck with it in the remaster and powered through the game. You can steam roll through it rather easily with grinding a bit. This isn't a title I'll revisit for quite a while, if at all, but it's nice to experience the progression of the series as they attempt new ideas whether they were lasting changes or not.