generationofswine Reviews

Civilization III (2001 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 29 August 2022]

It's pretty ugly. You play for long enough and your civ turns into a web or roads, and then railroads that is just... ugly.

IV was a bit more attractive.

But that doesn't really matter much because as fun as III is to play, the real appeal is in the scenarios. They were fun. They were seriously run, especially the dark age scenario, or the cult of blood as you marched slaves to be sacrificed in the mesoamerica scenario.

Those were fun games to play, and you could approach them from so many different strategies and locations that you could play them endlessly.

This was a very fun game, and one that I wish I could still play.

Civilization VI (2016 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[1/10 · 29 August 2022]

I was at war for the majority of the game, in one city that the AI couldn't manage to take. It was a war that I could largely ignore as I went about the rest of the game, and that is just not fun. When you keep it going just to see if the PC can think a way to take it... it doesn't make for a fun game.

IV was my favorite and V I absolutely hated... and then came VI...

... there are points of this that I like and would want to keep in future installments. And then there is, well...

... once more it is like you are using a God Mod when you go to war, the AI still isn't there as far as strategy and you still need the ability to stack for it to be a threat.

But, like V, if you are playing with friends... the wars aren't as bad and the new way is actually a lot of fun... but civ isn't exactly a game made for group play, it's more of an alone time killer.

And it doesn't punish as much economically for having an empire, but it still discourages watching your armies sweep across the glob a little too much.

But the killer is still stacking units for me. I don't want to play a game where I can fight a war without having the outcome matter. I want to be able to lose... and you really can't with an AI that can't think well enough to keep the artillery in the rear. When you let the computer stack, you have more fun because the computer is more of a threat.

The AI isn't a strategic threat, and it still punishes the parts of the game that make it fun and replaces them with victories that aren't as satisfying to win.

IDK, I am hoping in the next installment, they will change things back to a stack, or make the AI smart enough to use the new war mechanics effectively.

Civilization IV (2005 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 29 August 2022]

This was the best of the bunch (although I miss some of the III scenarios and I miss the WW1 style infantry that just looked and sounded deadly).

But it still stacked units and that is necessary for the PC to be an actual threat. When you don't stack... wars are sort of boring and void of all challenge when you face off against the AI.

So the stacking was still here and they made cultural victories so difficult that you no longer had to disable them to avoid an accidental win (which actually makes cultural victories a little more respectable).

The space-race is an actual race this time (but, again, it works better when you play against a human than when you play against the AI).

And the introduction of religion makes for a fun turn. It aids in alliances, it makes the game feel more like there are linked cultures.

IV is where Civilization hit it's high water mark. Despite it's short comings this is the best of the series. It's almost a decade old and this is still the game I fire up when I have a long wait on my hands and want to kill time.

Civilization V (2010 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[1/10 · 18 August 2022]

You need to stack. If you're playing with a human or humans, the new combat works (save the navy) but if you are playing with just the AI, war isn't a threat, the AI can't think enough to be a threat with the new combat mechanics.

The AI was more of a military threat when it could stack...

... but then this game heavily punishes you for empire building and that kills most of the fun. Cultural victories and the Space Race always used to feel like a participant trophy that you won because you couldn't get in other victories in time.

Part of the fun was watching your empire spread across the map... and they took that away to focus on more mundane strategies.

The lack of religion and civics hurt too.

But it is lack of stacking and the AIs inability to be formidable with the new mechanics that really killed it

This was the Civ that made me stop buying new Civs... and from what I understand the AI still can't fight a decent war.

So I still play IV, just so being invaded was a threat, because managing culture and tech has always been last resorts to beat the clock or so easy you're ashamed to win that way (and often deactivated to avoid accidental victories).

It just killed the franchise for me.

Freedom Toons (2014– )

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 1 June 2022]

Well, he's at his best when he's making fun of Ben Shapiro. He really captures his essence, caricatures him in a way that highlights his flaws, and is absolutely hysterical when he does it.

Otherwise, they are political cartoons, I understand that, but sometimes they get a little too political and not really satirical.

Still, overall, with the sheer amount that he throws out there, he has more hits than he has misses. But, even when he's not doing cartoons, when he's on Timcast, he has a quick enough wit where he's insightful and sharp with a delivery that is deadpan enough that I don't think the rest of the people in the room catch how funny it actually is until it's too late to laugh.

It's bias and right leaning, but he has not problem pointing the gun at his own side and those tend to be the funniest episodes... not because he's being bipartisan, but because he's familiar enough with the territory to know exactly where to put the knife.

Duck Hunt (1984 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 29 May 2022]

Player 2 could control the ducks. But the real fun was the clay pigeons, and then the competition. It was a single player game, but it was always the competition that made it fun.

Just trying to beat your dad's score... or uncles, or friends, or siblings, the crown of out shooting someone, with a cord that had to be stretched back as far as it would go to count.

It was a classic.

The Wolf Among Us (2013 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 15 April 2022]

If you read the comics... you are going to predict a lot of the game. You already know what is coming just because of the chronology of the game.

That being said, they nailed some of the voices, Bigby and Snow sound like I imagined they would. Jack, on the other hand... not so much.

Anyway, this is about as good as it gets. It looks like the comic. It sounds like the comic. The characters are true to the comic.

It is like you are sucked into the very pages.

The only down side is that the action is a bit clunky. Other than that, the options make for multiple plays and each time you are going back to Fables at it's height, Fables before the reconquest, Fables when the comic was as spectacular as they come.

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (2018 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[1/10 · 10 April 2022]

My wife is a gamer, and she actually got me an Assassins Creed game, the American Revolution one... because that was always my historical jam.

And I watch her play a lot...

And you know, I have always defended Sparta. When I was a kid they tried to compare them to the Soviets, and now they sort of compare them to the N-world WWII baddies.

But, women could own property. Women could vote. Every citizen had a say regardless of wealth. There was one of the first age of consent laws (which decreased infant mortality to a percentage unheard of until modern medicine) and woman were encouraged to engage in sports... which was shockingly progressive.

Meanwhile in Athens, if you were a woman (which I guess is now indefinable, and offensive when attributed to people who can carry children) you had your first kid at the age of 12, probably died with the baby in childbirth, were forced to marry a much older man, and were mostly confined to the house as little more than a slave.

So I sort of get where they are coming from with this.

But let's be honest, Sparta or Athens, the protagonist in this would have been put to death as the people in either community cast volley after volley of stones because of what she is depicted as doing... even the ones on her side.

The problem is, kids play these and its going to confuse the heck out of them. And, like the Da Vinci Code, people like me are going to have one heck of a headache when they get to college.

Ghostbusters (2009 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 6 April 2022]

Hi, I'm from the 80s and I have played Ghostbusters games before.... none I really enjoyed to be totally honest.

This one I liked. I really didn't want to be "The New Guy" character the saves the day because that always felt a bit Mary Sue for movie based video games. I was sort of hoping to be Winston, at least, since he was the new guy in the first film. Or, switch off between the four.

I got the Mary Sue instead and... a little disappointing. But some of the expressions on his face are pretty priceless. So it was cool that they took the time to convey a sense of humor through facial expressions.

The story is pretty good, and the gameplay, well, don't play it on casual, there is ZERO challenge... and my wife is the gamer of the two of us. So, I figured if she was playing the medium level I should go down to a handicapped level.

And then we both upped it to the maximum difficulty because, the game is a bit too easy otherwise, and you end up just playing out the story.

But, once you find that happy OK this is a bit of a challenge setting (the most difficult one they offer) the game becomes a lot of fun. You really get the feeling that you are a Ghostbuster, and that you are hanging out with them. And really, that is all I wanted out of this.

Trees Lounge (1996)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 10 August 2021]

I grew up in a small town, and, there are a lot of people in this film where you kind of know people a bit like that. It makes it easy to connect with the characters right away, because you've already sort of met them in your day-to-day life and Buscemi did a stellar job of writing them to highlight those qualities that you are going to associate with certain people.

And, honestly, that is the biggest draw to the movie. At least for me. It was sort of a "yeah, I know those guys, we already met a couple of times, and, honestly, I never really liked them."

And that is fine, because they are still relatable.

It's a bit slow, but on the whole, so it might not appeal to Millennials, but for what it is, it's a fantastic film.

Friday the 13th: The Game (2017 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[1/10 · 8 June 2021]

In 1989 I rushed over to Suncoast Video when I was a kid, on my bike, to get the NES Friday the 13th.... and got burned... like I always got burned when I or rented brought movie based games back in the day when NES ruled.

Meanwhile, fast-forward to my adult years, it's 2021, and... why not? My wife insisted on getting an Xbox so... why not.

This time I can play as Jason, and, if that doesn't suit me, I can play as a counselor and remember how much I hated the game back in the late 80s... only this time with better graphics, more carnage and... most importantly... nostalgia.

Only you can only play as a counselor on line and, honestly, no one plays it online. So you sit in a loading window with two other people, waiting for enough to actually have a game, and then watch them drop out as the wait gets too long.

So then you play single player, but you can only play as Jason, and offline single player, there isn't much of a plot to it, no real achievements, you just walk around and kill people... which isn't exactly entertaining for more than a couple of rounds of play.

It relied too much on being an online hit... and it really doesn't look like it was, so as cool as it is those three or four times you run around in offline mode because it wasn't popular enough to sustain online players.... it gets old really fast.

Cyberpunk 2077 (2020 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[1/10 · 8 June 2021]

Well, it looks good enough on whatever TV my wife has, so I don't understand where the whole console complaint is coming from.

But, she got it for me for Christmas, and because of COVID we celebrated at home. So I put it in, and the patches took forever, we watched Wonder Woman 1984, and then we watched a couple more movies, and then we went to bed when it was still uploading and installing the patches.

I kind of forgot about it for a while, picked it up, and it was still a glitch filled nightmare with awkward controls.

As cool as it looked, as cool as the world looked, it became unplayable just because of the glitches and the awkward controls.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (2014 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[1/10 · 8 June 2021]

Well it looks pretty...

... my wife is really the gammer in the family and her focus is mystery games. She devours them... I'll honestly pick up one or two games and just reply them, GTA, Red Dead Redemption, maybe a WWII FPS...

... and neither of us are interested in the whole Online thing, that seems like too much of a commitment.

Anyway... She got this one and from watching her play it, I was pretty disappointed. The mysteries she solved didn't tell much of a story in the end. As far as I could tell the game was lacking in little side missions...

... and then the combat, a few of the outcomes are determined on combat, and even though it only takes a couple of seconds, you don't really do it enough in the game to actually know what the game wants you to do... combat wise... so you fail because it's over-complicated and gives you zero practice.

And this is on top of Holmes mysteries that are lacking in story and clue discovery that kind of holds your hand.

Murdered: Soul Suspect (2014 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 8 June 2021]

This is one of the games I got for my wife after googling "Best Mystery Games for Xbox One" in most lists it came up right behind LA Noire, which was FANTASTIC.

Anyway, this game scares the heck out of her and, full disclosure, she scares easy. Between the music, the sound effects, and the demons, she's on the edge of her seat most of the time.

Now, it's 10 stars because the concept is pretty awesome and the mood that the game sets is equally awesome.

Solving your own murder as a ghost is actually a very fun idea, and the combination of ghostly memories and real world is also pretty awesome. In theory this game is fantastic.

The little treasure hunting side missions reward you with a fun ghost story upon completion. Which is a reward that you actually want to achieve, just to hear them, and a lot better than the average run-of-the-mill trophies that are otherwise pointless. The stories you get are actually very well written and exceptionally well narrated. That reward is almost more of a highlight for me than the actual mission... which causes arguments when my wife plays and I force her to find all the pieces just so I can hear the story.

In execution, it's a little weak. The game's combat sort of stinks, but then combat isn't really the focus of the game. It's more about uncovering clues than fighting, so you can give that a pass in my mind.

And, honestly, the story is a little too short and a lot too lacking in places to really explore. What is done is done well, moody, spooky, but at the end, if you aren't our age, with actual lives and careers, you are probably going to beat it in a weekend.

Mafia III (2016 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 2 December 2020]

I was hesitant because, well, Mafia. You aren't really in the mafia in this, not even really the Dixie Mafia... which would also not really work.

But on the other hand, it's the 1960s. And the thing that I loved most about Mafia II was the world of the 40s and 50s it created.

Unfortunately, as much as it does a GREAT job depicting the 60s... it depicts the 60s in the South and you kind of take on the role of an African-American Dukes of Hazard character... with gangland ties.

Lincoln Clay oscillates between looking too much like Vin Diesel to really get the feel that he's a Black man living in the segregated south, to actually feeling like a Black man living in the 60s south, and it's all dependent on lighting, which is a shame that they couldn't exactly get his skin tone to stay consistent.

Moving it to somewhere that the culture clash and the hippie movement was a bit more profound would have been more of what I wanted.

HOWEVER, instead you get the Civil Rights movement and fights along those lines and, honestly, I can't complain about that either. It was true to the era and made for a moving story line even if the characters are bad guys and not too sympathetic on either side.

It made for a compelling and fun story that I don't think I'd trade... even if I wanted Italian Mob and more Hippie culture. It was completely enjoyable.

The shooting certainly improved from Mafia II... the story is just as great. The exploration of post Vietnam America is pretty freaking fantastic, especially with the Civil Rights Movement thrown in there to spice it all up.

But, unfortunately, like Mafia II, it's just too darn short given the world they throw you into and how much effort they took into making it look period and beautiful.... so where it's a little longer, the lack of side missions, the lack of length, means that you only really experience it for a weekend. And that is a shame.

I went back and revisited it and GTA 5... and the navigation system is far and away better than the GTA series, this time incorporating street signs that allow you to play without wrecking because your eyes are on the little mini map in the corner.... and again the speedometer is something GTA has always lacked. And the addition of a rear view mirror also promotes better driving and less GTA style navigation crashes.

The music is a great selection for the period... car theft, however, is much more difficult and annoying, especially given all the classic cars that litter the game... the cars that you always wanted and could never afford... they are there, in the game, and pilfering them for a joy ride results the police being instantly alerted, even if they are out of view... and the noise they make is ridiculously loud. So the first thing you want to do is tone down the SFX audio.

Mafia II (2010 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 2 December 2020]

Well, this game is PAINFULLY short and in dire need of side missions and busy work, especially given that it takes place in the 40s and 50s and does a great job of making you feel like you are in the 40s and 50s. It is a world that you want to explore and live in for a while, it's a beautiful world, and the game is too fast.

It needs padding, it needs to extend itself a little, or a lot, so you can really live in that world for a bit longer than a COVID weekend.

But... it has some things that make it stand about GTA.

The first is the lock picking method, which adds to the game both in realism and fun. Especially since I have a friend who is a lock picker (which is the most useful friend to have in the world), who does it competitively. He has Youtube videos of picking locks, key and combination, to a timer. And, I guess for a video game the principal of how it's done is sound, but the execution is not. So, I guess if you are going for pure realism it's 50/50.

But if you don't like it you can just break the windows.

In any case, it's a nice addition.

As is the speedometer... and why GTA has never added it is beyond me. But the fun there is that you will get the cops on you, and you will get ticketed if you are driving too fast... which, again, GTA needs to add. And it comes with a safe drive mode that you can turn on and off to assure that you don't speed too much.

Vito, your character looks like a cross between Pacino and DeNiro in the godfather movies (more Bobby than Al) which, again, is fun.

The winter setting in the 40s is beautiful. The summer setting in the 50s is beautiful, and both really take you to the decades they portray, right down to the radio segments and the news with commentary about the Rosenbergs that is brutal, dark, and hysterical... making the car radio feel like what L.A. Noire wanted but never achieved.

The first real mission back in the US tells you exactly what you need to do to mine as much money as you want (which also allows you to hone your lock picking skills) and make enough to assure that you are set to buy whatever you need for coming missions.

Ammo is limited, which is a nice add, and it draws the need to buy hold out weapons and really stock up before you start some missions.... which is another thing it has over GTA where you seem to always have more ammo than you possibly need.

And the cars and driving handle great.

However, it is FAR too short, especially given how great they made the world and the sense you got for being back in the 40s and 50s.

And the shooting is... uninspired. It's not done badly, it's just uninspired.

And, frankly, the game is glitchy. Which means in a few missions you have to die over and over again until you figure out your way around the glitches.

But, all of that is mote when compared to the ability to be in a different era and believably so... I just wish the game was longer, that there were more side missions and busy work to allow you to explore it more completely.

Reservoir Dogs (2006 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 2 December 2020]

It's not a bad game and I think a lot of the negative reviews are because it's 1, very short and 2, not as good as the movie.

But it is fun, and it does play your way through all the parts of the film that, well, that weren't in the film, allowing you to be the different characters as they make their way towards, well, towards what was in the movie.

And it ranks you on how you do, allowing for different endings depending on how psychotic or how professional you act... even through it's already kind of murder one for everyone involved so, it doesn't really matter how many more lives you take... professionally speaking

Halo 2 (2004 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 23 November 2020]

Well, the handgun was a little less powerful in this wasn't it? But, you could have two, and that makes sense because anything as powerful as it was in the first game.... you probably couldn't control it to be as accurate as it was in Halo.

And, you can be the aliens too, and the final mission was a shotgun zombie kill fest, or at least close to the final mission (if I remember right).

What I am saying is that the game was SUPER FUN, a great follow-up to Halo, and, like Halo, really a game made for socially killing your friends for the sake of fun... and that is the appeal of FPS games... and it is also the drawback to the online style of play.

Online the other other players might as well just be NPC's, even when you can speak with them you don't have that feeling of the split screen and everyone in the same room shouting at one another and swearing as they are killed by people they are friends with, close too... you don't get that with headsets and online FPS shootouts.

I think Halo 2 was when online was introduced to the series.... but it still encouraged your friends to gather around one television and that is where the appeal is, the socialization, the REAL socialization. It was kind of like playing a violent board game when you did it.

Now with everyone online, it's like playing a video game with NPC's you can talk to... and that lacks the socialization, the bonding, the fun of the split screen shoot outs with friends.

I don't know, now when I play games like this, I do it single player, only because the fun didn't come with playing against people miles away, it came with playing against people in the same room as you.

To me, at least, it just isn't as much fun without that TRUE social element... and Halo 2 was the last of that era.

L.A. Noire (2011 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 9 November 2020]

OK, yeah, I was expecting GTA in the 40s.... but then again you are a cop and that kind of limits how you can act. It's not really a free for all where you can blow through cars at a red light and drive through foot traffic to get to where you are going faster.

Remember, you're a cop, property damage kind of counts against you, but injuring pedestrians certainly does... at least in the story mode. Not so much in Patrol Mode.

But then... the soundtrack is amazing, both the dramatic sequences and the era appropriate radio music. The lighting (especially in Black and White mode) is superb and really feels like an old Hard Boiled detective film...

... but being a Chinatown fan, I kind of went for color.

And it's fun driving around 1940s LA and solving crimes. That is really where the appeal is, but if you saw "Rockstar' and "Open World" I can see there you thought GTA in the 40s.

The story slowly unravels as you put crimes together, your actions, the clues you find, and the how you question suspects and witnesses all determine how well you do, and how much you botch the case... which allows you to finish a mission and really screw the pooch, avoid tailing suspects by properly interrogating them, or put more links together and turn a small crime into a big bust.

If you're not into the boring detective work and the unraveling mystery, it's going to be slow and tedious for you, but if that's the kind of thing you enjoy, it will prove to be a fun and moody game.

Wizards & Warriors (1987 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 4 November 2020]

Oddly for kids, when we looked at the cover and the title "Wizards & Warriors" we thought "D&D junk."

And, mind you we thought that even AFTER playing Zelda, Dragon Warrior, and so on almost nonstop through the winters.

But, then we loaded it up and... it actually looked MILES better than Dragon Warrior and Zelda. Sure, it didn't have the open world feel of Zelda, but is sure looked cool.

And then, the levels, they were SUPER freaking fun. We had no idea what we were in for as kids, this was a sleeper, this was one of the more entertaining games of our youth that we only discovered because my grandmother (who hardly knew what NES was) thought it would make an OK Christmas gift.

Even my dad, who only played two player competitive games go hooked.

It was fun from start to finish.... but ultimately, too short a play.

Spy vs. Spy (1985 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 4 November 2020]

Yeah, I never beat it.

I'm not even sure I finished the first level. I know my father did once, and we were both appropriately shocked by it.

It was a game my dad and I loved to play together and, long before N64 and Goldeneye, long before Halo, long before modern warfare, Spy vs. Spy was the two player game where you could run around, set booby traps, and kill your friends...

... in this case my father.

There were missions, there were goals, none of that mattered because it was all about son killing father, father killing son, or, occasionally, one of us killing a guest. The point of the game, the mission really didn't matter, that wasn't where the fun was.

The Goonies II (1987 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 4 November 2020]

We never knew there was a Goonies, we always thought this was Goonies II because it was intended to be a sequel to the movie.

But this was EPIC. Most of the games based off movies for NES were burns. They were games that we waited for, we longed for, and then rented only to find out they stank.

But Goonies II was some serious fun. There were enough ins and outs to get lost in the map. There were enough secrets to reveal to obsess over. There was enough action to make playing the same segments over and over as you tried to find you way endlessly entertaining.

It was just pure fun, and the music was exceptionally good for an 80s video game and three or four notes.

Rush'n Attack (1985 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 4 November 2020]

So they had this on NES... but in the small town I grew up they had this and Rampage in arcade form at the Pizza Stop.

And the Pizza Stop is where you went instead of going home, because it was a small town, it was the 80s, and even elementary school kids had next to nothing to worry about.

So you brought a soda so you could have an excuse to be there, and you played Rush'n Attack and Rampage and tried to beat everyone's score in a game that felt pretty real and was difficult and frustrating enough to be challenging fun in the 80s.

And the fact that you start with a knife surrounded by people with guns, well that was just a bonus in the fun challenge department

Perfect Dark (I) (2000 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 4 November 2020]

Yeah, Bond gets all the love because it came first. And it deserves it.

But this was better. And it was kind of better because of sims. If you had a slow night and couldn't get all your friends to sit around the TV and kill one another, you could at least load up a bunch of sims and have that feeling.

Or, you could load them up to pad the scores a little, make the friend on friend violence a little more chaotic.

Oh, yeah, there were solo missions too, and those were fun. New Chicago still stands out pretty vividly in my memory.

But it wasn't about the solo missions, it was just Bond brought to the next level of friend-on-friend digital violence.

Like Goldeneye before it, it's one of those games where the vivid memories come from playing it with friends, all in the same room, and not so much going out on your own.

Halo: Combat Evolved (2001 Video Game)

An Honest Review

[10/10 · 4 November 2020]

My name was I was bright pink, and I was CRAZY good at this... at least I was in college, in the big city, where I could rule the night.

And then I got home, and played with the friends I grew up with and... not so good. At least nothing to write home about.

But that was the beauty of Halo. Something happened between Goldeneye and Halo that gave us hicks the ultimate advantage when we were playing with big city boys in college.

The technology advanced where, suddenly, knowing how to use a blind, knowing how to lead a target, the things that we honed growing up doing hunting squirrels and deer actually translated into the video game world.

It really was Combat Evolved like the tag line said it was. You still didn't have to think about wind and distance, but it was the first video game where actually knowing how to hunt kind of translated into a game.

That on it's own is pretty revolutionary.