Sniper Elite: Resistance (PC Game Pass)

I think this is my favorite modern shooter series at the moment. It leaves out all the modern cinematic BS for the most part and just lets you loose in a largeish open map with your objectives to achieve any way you like. The maps are the best in the genre. Plenty of approaches to your objectives, lots to find if you explore. Best of all the developers don't go overboard trying to make the game contain every modern graphical technique- so it runs flawlessly for me at 4K/120 at ultra settings. It still looks decent- this is exactly where I want games to sit with graphics versus performance.

The only tangential question I have is why is the leader of the French Resistance a "strong modern black woman (tm)". It just feels like every game now has to have a "strong modern black woman (tm)" in a leadership position for some reason. What's wrong with an ordinary French woman as leader of the French Resistance? It shouldn't annoy me, but it does.

I'm late this year but please include me. Thanks! :)


Games Finished in 2024
Games Finished in 2023
Games Finished in 2022
Games Finished in 2021
Games Finished in 2020
Games Finished in 2019
Games Finished in 2018

Condemned: Criminal Origins. I had played this years ago on the Xbox 360, but my disc copy of the game was bugged and the game would crash right as the final boss fight was about to start. But having played FEAR recently, I thought maybe it was time to go back to this and see if I could finish it, especially since it's not a particularly long game.

Much like FEAR, the specifics of the story are kind of a hodge-podge of elements swiped from movies the creators liked, in this case stuff like Se7en. You control an FBI agent who investigates serial killers, but you're jumped at a crime scene and the killer uses your gun to shoot two cops, which means you're on the run and you end up tracking that guy, who happens to be a serial killer who preys on other serial killers. At the same time, there's a mysterious bird-borne disease that is apparently driving the city's homeless population crazy, so as you move through the city without your gun, you end up having countless battles against the homeless with improvised weapons. Eventually you reach the end and are crowned king of the bums. Some guys who look like Cenobites are also involved and apparently the sequel explains a bit more about that.

There's some other stuff about your guy being some kind of science experiment and the government is really interested in you, which I guess is to explain why your guy is able to kick the crap out of so many crazy bums, although it doesn't really go anywhere and almost feels like a vestige from an earlier form of the game, like maybe they were thinking of making him related to the Point Man from FEAR or something.

The important thing is that the game's take on first-person melee combat is pretty solid and after you get used to it, you can easily get the rhythm of how to block and attack and deal with multiple foes at once. If I have anything to complain about, it's that your character moves pretty slowly. He's a chunky Borgnine-esque figure and holding the sprint button down is no good because he's in pathetic condition for a law enforcement officer and gets totally winded after he takes like four steps, and he isn't even that fast before he runs out of gas. Also, the inclusion of CSI-like bits in which you "investigate" for clues end up feeling like interactive cutscenes because the game largely holds your hand through it and even automatically selects the correct tools for the moment. But the game still looks and sounds very nice and the campaign ends at a good time, before tedium starts to set in.

Dark Siren (Steam)

This game was a proof of concept for the later and much better Vampire Mansion. Basically, you spend your time avoiding capture by an evil Siren with very unlikely body proportions until you piece together the story through notes and escape. Then you do it again on harder difficulty, all the while unlocking ever more costumes to barely dress up the Siren with. It's okay, but Vampire Mansion is so much better that you may as well just get it instead. The only advantage this one has is that it is cheaper- it is around $1.50 on sale whilst Vampire Mansion is around $3.50 on sale...it's worth paying double in this case.