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fireflyhearts (29 KP) rated Bitlife in Apps

Dec 21, 2019 (Updated Dec 21, 2019)  
Bitlife
Bitlife
Games
5
6.3 (3 Ratings)
App Rating
Would Be Amazing If It Wasn't So Glitchy
This life simulator is really fun. Every person you create is different; it never seems repetitive, at least to me. But the glitches, at least on Android...oh boy. Let's just say they're ruining the game for me.
There are achievements you can unlock for playing with certain jobs, lifestyles, etc...but lately they've been erased whenever I close the app.
And the whole thing tends to freeze up after a while; this isn't fixed by closing it or restarting my phone either. I just have to wait until it decides to start working again!
If these issues were fixed, I could easily give Bitlife a 9/10 rating. But for now, I'm just too frustrated to be generous.
  
WarGames (1983)
WarGames (1983)
1983 | Sci-Fi
Contains spoilers, click to show
A film that had passed me by up until now I found to be a bit of a mixed bag. The central plot is very interesting and the theme of a fear of the power of technology and being only a few button clicks away from starting a war is still relevant and timely today. What I did struggle with it being a 1980’s film about computer technology it is of course now incredibly outdated. I laughed at the WOPR , the enormous war games simulator with its sinister blinking lights. The storytelling is strong though and a fresh faced Matthew Broderick makes for a likeable lead but I think it might actually be a rare film that I would prefer to see a contemporary remake of than watch again.
  
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Josh Burns (166 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of The Bellows in Video Games

Jun 21, 2019  
The Bellows
The Bellows
2016 | Horror
Decent scares (1 more)
Accessable to nongamers
Dated character models (0 more)
Can you handle this VR haunted house simulator?
The Bellows was an early psvr horror experience that had a mixed to negative reception. It wasn't as "gamey" as most people expected, and it's also quite short. That being said, going into knowing what it is, I liked it. It's basically a VR haunted house that you walk through. It has a creepy atmosphere and some good jump scares (which are way more fun in VR). It's not something you'll play over and over, maybe when Halloween rolls around each year, but there is another big positive to this game. Something that makes it a must have if you like horror that even my beloved Here They Lie, or the acclaimed Resident Evil 7 (aside from the demos) doesn't have. Given it's short length, simple mechanics of... pretty much just walking, anyone can play it, making it a fantastic pass the headset game with friends. You can shut off the tv so no one sees what the player sees so everyone has the same surprises. I cannot say enough how fun it is to watch others get scared in VR. And finally, it has a very cheap price tag.
  
What Remains Of Edith Finch
What Remains Of Edith Finch
2017 | Action/Adventure
Walking simulator worth playing
Been waiting a long time for this game to be cheap enough so I'd get to see it. And this month, it's free for Playstation Plus subscribers. Well, I'm happy I got to play it because it's one of those games that really touches you. Gets inside you & leaves you feeling blue, happy, mad, hurt & thinking about life itself. The game puts you in the body of Edie Jr. of the Finch family, returning to her family's home, where she grew up. She wanders around, finding diaries of her family & reading them. While she reads them, you get to play their stories, finding how each of them dies. Most of them, not so peacefully,

The game is short. Only 2 hours or maybe 3, if you take your time looking around at the beautifully rendered world, which I did. The story is well written. Each member's story can hit you differently. The hardest one is where you play as an infant. I won't spoil it, but when it ended, the sound of a frog came through my controller. It was like getting kicked in the chest.

My only complaints are the short game time & the slow speed of your walking.

I highly recommend this game & if you're a PS:Plus subscriber, you'd be crazy not to try it now.
  
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Josh Burns (166 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Godzilla in Video Games

Jun 21, 2019  
Godzilla
Godzilla
Action/Adventure
Nails the feeling from the movies (2 more)
Fun with a large variety of playable Kaiju
A ton of unlockables
No story mode (1 more)
Does get repetitive
A fun love letter to the classic Godzilla movies
I feel like this game was dead before it had a chance. Critics expected Mortal Kombat with Kaiju and it isn't. It's more of a kaiju simulator. You are a big lumbering monster, so that's how the controls are intentionally. Many have written it off as too clunky for that reason, missing the point.
Gameplay: It is fun, but does get repetitive after a while. There is no real story so it's best played for a while, and back off once it feels repetitive and come back later. Basically, you smash cities and generators, gaining G Energy which makes your Kaiju grow in size and power. Or, you protect them, while fighting kaiju and increasing human military forces.
content: you can unlock almost any monster seen in any Godzilla movie as well as bios for each. You can level them up and unlock figures and settings to build dioramas also. It has multiple game modes but they don't vary from each other a lot. There is also PVP online, but since the critics shredded it so bad there aren't many players so matchmaking is a nightmare.
overall: it's a lot of fun with a ton of content to unlock, just don't burn yourself out on it. I play for like a month here and there, have a blast, then back off for a while so it doesn't get stale.
  
Persona 5
Persona 5
2016 | Action/Adventure, Role-Playing
Characters (4 more)
Design
Story
Game Mechanics
Loading Screens/Menus
The Game RPG Die hards have been waiting for
The first thing I can think of to say is WOW. Fans of this franchise have been waiting for a very long time for this entry in the Shin Megami Tensei universe. I, as a long time fan SMT, absolutely adore this game.

To really play this game and to get the full grasp of this game expect to put at least 150 hours into the initial game play. Persona 5 does have a new game plus which opens up other options and avenues for players to choose. Seriously though, my first play through was 153 hours. Plan to spend a lot of time in this universe.

That being sad, don't be scared! The game is visually stunning and the story line is unique and highly involved. You have character relationships, jobs, and side missions.


There is a heavy time management quality to this game. You make the choices to work, hang out, or go to the dungeon. The best way to state what Persona 5 is this: Time Management + Dating Simulator + Dungeon Crawler.


As the story progresses, so do the relationships you choose to grow. The main character will make a relationship with people the represent the major arcana tarot cards (so, 20+ relationships to juggle!) From there you get missions to save people from themselves. Some of these are accomplished in the major dungeons (7 overall), while the rest are in the peoples dungeon.


I love every aspect of this game. I had high hopes going into it and ATLUS did not disappoint.
  
Magic Rush: Heroes
Magic Rush: Heroes
Games, Entertainment
2
2.0 (1 Ratings)
App Rating
Non-buggy (0 more)
Boring (3 more)
Gacha (random character drawing)
Throttled progress
Free to play, pay to progress: Hostageware
The latest in a long line of soulless Gacha
This game gets a solid C for effort. An RPG with occasionally tower defense elements is okay in concept, but this implimentation is sure to leave you feeling hungry for more. As in, more of some other game. Because let me be clear there's nothing satisfying here to playing this game. Take a look at the central gameplay mechanics:
- Energy system arbitrarily keeps you from playong the game at a pace necessary to actually enjoy it (oh, of course, you can insert a quarter in the form of $5 % to keep playing for another twenty seconds)
- hero draw mechanic makes sure that you have no control over what champions you have and whether they're good or not, leaving zero room for customization
- Standard Battles amount to little more than an Idle clicker.
- Alliances encourage you to team up with people you don't know and don't and won't ever care about to do nothing
- weak and meaningless pvp battles because they're still just the aforementioned idle clicker
- re-raid previously completed maps for junk to progress! This of course costs money, and with its poor interface it is left taking days longer than it needs to. But hey, for those of us who like farming but not gameplay, I guess it makes sense.
- constant ads and offers for bundles that cost your life savings and do nothing
 - ...and much, much more, ensuring the game is 4x as generic as every other game on the entire app store. 2 stars for good (read:non-buggy) implimentation of this cash grab street beggar simulator.
  
The Mist (2007)
The Mist (2007)
2007 | Horror
"It appears we may have a problem of some magnitude."

The Mist is flat out fantastic for a handful of reasons.
Firstly, it has a ridiculously good cast - Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher, Tony Jones, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, William Sadler, Alexa Davalos, Sam Witwer...there isn't a weak link at all, and it's a damn good job - The Mist isn't a straight forward creature feature. Although it's does have it's fair share of monster moments, it's main focus is on the dangers of fanatacism, and the delusions of human beings, as a lot of regular Joes who are just scared of the events unfolding, start to blindly follow the words of Mrs. Carmody, someone who is truly unhinged, and truly believes what she preaches - it's a concept all too familiar in today's real world, and Marcia Gay Harden puts in a show stopping performance, and is one the easiest-to-hate horror antagonists ever put to screen.

The titular Mist is realised superbly, and also does a good job at hiding the CGI monsters effectively. What we do get shown is just enough for a decent payoff, and there are some breathtaking shots during the films climax. For the most part though, it's a masterclass in stimulating the audiences imagination, and is scary in what you don't actually see.
And the of course there is THAT ending. If you somehow haven't seen The Mist yet, then go in with as little knowledge as possible, and let that ending just destroy your very soul. Its propels what is a good horror, into an all timer, even if it is a straight up depression simulator.

Really worth a look for any fans of horror, sci-fi, monsters, or Stephen King, and seek out the black and white version for extra satisfaction!
  
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Jordan Binkerd (567 KP) rated Zombicide: Black Plague in Tabletop Games

Jul 21, 2019 (Updated Jul 21, 2019)  
Zombicide: Black Plague
Zombicide: Black Plague
2015 | Adventure, Fantasy, Fighting, Horror, Medieval
Improved ruleset vs. the original game (3 more)
Fantasy theme
Excellent miniatures!
Improved components vs. the original game
Primarily a combat simulator (1 more)
Low complexity
Improved rules and components, plus the fantasy theme? I wish I discovered this before the original.....
My wife and I love the original Zombicide and have most of the content for the modern setting, minus Kickstarter exclusives and the guest artist characters. So when we found ourselves at the local ComicCon and there was a copy of Black Plague in the game library? We jumped all over that! Compared to the original game, they've fixed several of the rules that bugged us about the game, especially regarding shooting and resources. They've also upgraded the dashboard system to a plastic thing with pegs, which is so much better than the originals that we've seriously considered buying them on eBay and Photoshoping cards for the modern characters so that we can incorporate the upgraded dashboards. We did incorporate a lot of the rules changes into our own games. So if you want to get into Zombicide and can only pick one setting, make it this one.


Like I said, we love Zombicide. But there are a lot of people in the gaming community that feel it lacks something in the way of complexity and strategy. They're not necessarily wrong. It's primarily a tactics game: here's your mission and goal, here's the situation, go! Is it easy? Sometimes. Depends on how lucky you are. Sometimes the zombies spawn in ways and locations that play right into your hands. Sometimes the Abomination spawns right in front of you and you either die immediately or the game bogs down while you scramble to outmaneuver him or find the (scarce) resources to defeat him. It can be pretty random and frustrating at times, and there are people who avoid randomness like the plague in their gaming. But like I said, my wife and I love the system, and this is the best version of it that I've seen.
  
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Micah Ulibarri (79 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of STAR WARS Battlefront II in Video Games

Apr 3, 2018  
STAR WARS Battlefront II
STAR WARS Battlefront II
2017 | Shooter
Battlefront II had a lot to contend with this last year. Besides, Battlefront I being a very critically reviewed release, there was a large discussion created that could almost be referred to as a scandal concerning the loot crate system. I'm not here to talk about that. I want to review this game based on what we got.

First off, it's Star Wars. I'm a huge Star Wars fan and as such, I am always willing to buy in to anything no matter what the surrounding conversation may be. I did not buy the original game however due to it not containing a campaign or story mode. I'm usually not a big third person online shooter player so Battlefront I had nothing for me.


The story mode: I absolutely loved the story mode. The characters were originally introduced in the Battlefront: Inferno Squad novel so I was already invested in them. It involved following the continuing story of Iden Version through the end of Return of the Jedi, the 6th movie in the saga.


The plot was fun and engaging and involved not just the main character, but also scenarios in which you play as Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Kylo Ren. Thise were particularly fun because they change up the possible monotony of playing the same character, and also because they are beloved Star Wars characters.


There are also a number of different scenarios besides the basic run and gun you would expect from a third person shooter game. Sometimes there's a lightsaber involved. Also, and a particular favorite of mine: flight simulator in beloved spacecraft. The Millennium Falcon? Xwing? Bespin Cloud Car? You betcha.


The single player is what I bought the game for and I won't lie, that alone was worth my $60. I enjoyed it, it was properly challenging and it paid off even more when the additional chapters were added in December (free of charge).


The multiplayer wasn't as fun for me. I'm not very good against other players and I learned that quickly. I still jump on from time to time and play starfighters, but otherwise, my time with the game has been spent.


If it was just the single player I'd give it a 9. Total game is dropped due to me not enjoying the multiplayer so much.