F1 Race Stars

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Codemasters

F1 Race Stars sounds like the kind of game that would be a compromise of what my friends like to play and what I like to play, in terms of racing games. I'm more of an arcade-style racing fan and they love Formula One and like their racing realistic. So, when F1 Race Stars came out, they got it, and without fail, we would play it somewhat frequently. I found that in our plays that after a few races, I was ready to call it quits and didn't really want to keep playing much after that. It was fun, due to the company, but I didn't know how much I would like it playing solo. Well, now I know. Returning to this game after not playing it for several years, I'm surprised by how basic it is…while they have the power-ups and a turbo system like some kart racing games, the racing is otherwise pretty bland. Since the tracks are wide, they don't really have the excitement of trying to squeeze past other cars on the track, and there aren't that many tight turns, like you'd find in a real Formula One race…so, aside from the gimmick of having the F1 license and some of the drivers, I don't know if this will really appeal to Formula One fans. Since the kart racing aspects also feel dumbed down (there's no drifting in turns, for example) I don't know if this will really appeal to kart racing fans, either. So F1 Race Stars finds itself in a weird place where I think fans of the F1 franchise will be disappointed and fans of kart racing games will also be disappointed. It's still a passable game, mind you, but only just barely.

Review added: 09/24/2024

Fallout 3

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios

When Bethesda got their hands on the Fallout franchise, a lot of folks were concerned that converting the isometric, turn-based RPG into an Elder Scrolls-like adventure game would spell disaster…or at the very least, it would lose the charm of the originals. The end result silenced most critics. Fallout 3 instantly became a big favorite of many who played it, myself included. Unfortunately, despite how good the game is, it’s also pretty buggy. It’s not uncommon to have the entire game start to get choppy or completely freeze altogether. That said, while I love Fallout 3, the score does slip a bit due to all of the glitches that you’ve got to deal with in order to play through to the end…but make no mistake, even with the glitches, most folks will still gladly find their way to the end of the game. I'll also mention that playing this on modern consoles seems to help quite a bit with many of the issues like the game getting choppy and/or the game freezing. It doesn't eliminate everything, but I managed to get through this game on Xbox Series X without this game freezing a single time. So, if you've enjoyed the Elder Scrolls games, but would rather have the same experience in a post-apocalyptic setting with guns and baseball bats instead of arrows and swords, then give Fallout 3 a try. There's a reason that this series has the rabid fanbase that it does.

Review added: 05/17/2020

Fallout: New Vegas

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

Fallout 3 was mostly a success for Bethesda, though glitches did hold the game back from being truly great. Two years later, Fallout: New Vegas was released, and while in many ways it surpasses Fallout 3, it also was far more glitchy than the previous game. Instead of just having choppy frames and freezing (which gets RIDICULOUS near the end of the game – you can’t enter more than 5-6 areas before it starts) this game also introduces occasional times where the game simply crashes the entire console. Still, even with these frustrating glitches, New Vegas is still awesome. Obviously, it gets the score docked due to how broken it can sometimes feel, but the gameplay ideas introduced in New Vegas, the setting that feels both entirely different and comfortingly familiar at the same time, and a cast of some of the more memorable characters in the series make this a must-play game if you enjoyed Fallout 3. If the glitches had been reduced instead of increased for New Vegas, it very well could have been my favorite game in the franchise…for many, that's the case, even with all of the game's issues. And for the record, I recently played this with backwards compatibility on an Xbox Series X…for the first time that I had ever played it, the crashing seemed very minimal. Either some patches were put out to fix some of the issues over the years, or the improved hardware did wonders for the gameplay…but either way, playing this on the Xbox Series X seems to have been the least troublesome for me. If you played this when it first came out and were turned off by all of the bugs, then maybe it's worth another try now.

Review added: 05/17/2020

Far Cry 3

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Far Cry 3 is mildly like the Elder Scrolls or recent Fallout games in that you get to wander around the game's world, sandbox style. Unlike the Bethesda titles listed above, though, the glitches here are few and very far between. Likely because Ubisoft Montreal made a smaller in-game world, which in turn, likely meant that there were fewer bugs to find and work out. While the in-game world may be smaller than in some other open-world games, wandering around the beautiful, colorful, tropical islands in Far Cry 3 is an absolute joy...And using stealth and the environments to hide and wipe out enemies without them ever even knowing you're there is just plain fun...And don't forget the wild animals, who are on nobody's side. My favorite memory from this game is watching a tiger tackle one of my enemies off of a pier, into the water, resulting in both of them drowning...I got to loot the enemy's body and I got a free tiger skin out of the deal as well. That unpredictability is what makes Far Cry 3 so fun. Random events like that give you a neat feeling of never knowing what will happen next, resulting in some very fun and entertaining moments whenever you pop the game disc in. Far Cry 3 isn’t perfect, but it’s still a very good stealth-based shooter if you’re looking for that with a colorful, tropical setting.

Review added: 04/07/2020

Final Fantasy XIII

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Square Enix

I originally played Final Fantasy XIII back when it initially released on store shelves. I think that I put maybe 8-10 hours into it,but just wasn’t able to get into the story and gameplay and I wound up moving on to other games. Now, about a decade later, I decided to give it another chance and this time I played all the way through to the end. Ultimately, I enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII, but I won’t lie – it took me roughly 20 hours of playtime to feel that way. The majority of the game is basically “walk forward and fight enemies until you reach a cutscene, then repeat.” It’s not until the end of the game that you’re really able to wander around and explore, and once I reached that point, I really enjoyed playing Final Fantasy XIII – it basically doubled my play time, since I found myself wandering around and trying to complete any side quests and optional fights that I could. Overall, I think that FF13 is a solid game, and I’ve grown very fond of it now that I’ve made my way through to the end…but I’d still rank it in the lower end of games in the series.

Review added: 09/19/2021

flower

Also known as:  flowery (Japan)

Developer: ThatGameCompany

Flower is a very relaxing, very soothing game to play. It doesn't require a lot of skill or know-how to make your way through to the end, which makes it fun for people who have never touched a video game before, and yet it's still just as entertaining to play if you've played hundreds or thousands of games...It's very artistic and beautiful as well, which makes it relaxing just watching someone else play. This is the perfect game to show someone that thinks all video games are about mindless violence and have no artistic value, to let them know that much like people, all video games are different. Likewise, if you were looking to convert an ordinary, normal person into one of us crazy video game playing folk, flower is the kind of game that may be able to do it. If you haven't played flower yet, do yourself a favor and play it. It's a short game, but it’s unique, beautiful, and very enjoyable while it lasts.

Review added: 04/20/2020

Folklore

Also known as:  FolksSoul (South Korea), FolksSoul: Ushinawareta Denshou (Japan)

Developer: Game Republic

I’ve always wanted to really like Folklore…and in some aspects I do. Unfortunately, it has a few flaws that prevent me from holding it in high regard. For those unfamiliar, Folklore is set in a small town of Doolin and you play as two characters, Ellen and Keats, in an effort to solve a mystery that happened 17 years prior. While the story is kind of interesting, the gameplay is what makes this game dull at times. Somewhat similar to Kirby games, Ellen and Keats can absorb their enemies. When they do so, they can “summon” them to use their abilities in battle. While this sounds neat, the combat is often boring and bland. The lack of a lock-on system doesn’t help, either. The boss fights can be pretty fun, though, and collecting pages of a picture book to expose what you should be doing in the battle is a neat idea. There’s more good than bad in Folklore, but I can’t help but feel that many others will feel like I did and start to grow tired of the combat early on, but trudge through the game, just to see where the story leads.

Review added: 04/23/2020

Formula One: Championship Edition

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Studio Liverpool

I don't watch Formula One…or any sort of auto racing, honestly. I just don't see the appeal. I do, however, have friends that are obsessed with it. They always sang the praises of this game, and the little bit I played when at their house, I didn't mind it, either. But, now I've sat down and put a few hours into it for a review, and I can honestly say that my opinion is what it always was - a solid racing game that's fun enough for non-fans like me, but it also seems to cover enough basis for fans of Formula One to enjoy as well. The racing has an option where the game will assist with braking in the turns for you, if you're a novice like me that just wants to fly into the turns, and often finds themselves spinning out in the process, this can be helpful. Not necessarily to keep it always on (though you can) but to get used to how to control your car…kind of like training wheels when learning to ride a bike. It helped me ease into the game rather than make me feel overwhelmed by spinning out constantly…it helps me convert my reckless racing style into one that let me succeed. I, personally, will always prefer arcade-style racers to more realistic ones like this game, but when it comes to realistic Formula One games, this is one of the better ones that I've played so far.

Review added: 09/24/2024

Fuel Overdose

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: I-FRIQIYA

Fuel Overdose, just looking at the trailer and such, looks like a game that I'd like…except all of the positive reviews that litter the end of the trailer are from websites that I have never heard of in my life. That's like if Bubsy 3D was released today, I suffered from a severe head injury and gave it a perfect score, and the trailer touted 3pmoot.com giving Bubsy 3D a ten out of ten score…Ain't nobody knows what this website is and I ain't got no credibility to the average person since the average person has no idea that this website exists. After playing the game, I can definitely see why no credible websites gave them a favorable score. Y'know, when I was in college, I actually made my creative writing professor create some rules in his classroom since I was very good at following the rules to give him results that he did not want at all. For example, one paper we had to use a website as a reference to prove our point - I wound up creating a single-page website that I wrote myself and used that as my reference. Zero credibility, but luckily that professor had a sense of humor. I kinda wonder if that's what I-FRIQIYA did for those scores…maybe they just made all those websites. Anyway, Fuel Overdose is a failed attempt to blend the shallow stories found in a typical fighting game with the fights replaced with races…poor races where controlling your car feels like you covered your hands in oil and were asked to hold onto a stick made out of Jell-o. Have you ever tried to hold onto a stick of Jell-o with oily hands? It's actually easier than controlling the cars in this game. Every time, I began wondering if I was getting the hang of the controls…and then I'd try to turn a corner, and I was reminded, "Nope." The racing also includes combat…which is just as awful as the racing. The developers also seemed to know this…which is probably why even if you lose every race, you'll still advance on in the game and can even still see the ending of each character. Honestly, I think the name of this game came from the developers overdosing on sniffing the fumes of the fuel from their vehicle…and the only people that seem to disagree are the websites that provides positive scores for the trailer.

Review added: 08/14/2022