Recent reviews by CarlCX

There is an evil lurking at the heart of this game that hates you, uniquely you, and you will repay that hatred by sacrificing entire days of your life on its altar.

I wonder if maybe the freedom of Horizon hasn't sort of dimmed my ability to enjoy more traditional racing games, but even by the standards of the ones I've played in the past the campaign in this seems really unsatisfying.

Honestly, genuinely great. It effortlessly shifts between character narrative, societal reflection and drugged-out cyber-bayou spirituality, which is really not a sentence I thought I would type at any particular point in my life.

As a childhood megafan of the FF series I really, really hated FFX when it came out, and it took me twenty years to realize I didn't actually hate FFX, I hated that it was the first FF that made me realize I wasn't a kid anymore and the games were no longer made specifically for me. FFX has issues, but it's an emotionally resonant story with some really good ideas.

I have more trouble giving FFX-2 an equal review because for whatever reason this port of FFX-2 crashes constantly. FFX, barely had a hiccup; FFX-2, once I got into chapter 2, crashed just about once an hour.

It's still worth it, but be forewarned if you want to play the dresssphere game it might get wonky.

I played this game almost a decade and a half ago, and it was too much for me. It haunted my dreams and my Rock Band library. I knew one day we would pass again on a narrow road and one of us would never return.

It came back. I played it once. I won. I immediately uninstalled it, and will never play it again. Thank you for giving me this emotional closure.

There was a point in this game where a textual prompt made me jolt in my seat, and immediately afterward I wondered how specifically crafted it had been to elicit that reaction, and I both cursed and appreciated that level of manipulation.

I was expecting to like this, but I was surprised by just how much I did. The narrative is direct, earnest and distressingly relatable, the art and music are immaculate, and the arcade tributes are incredibly on-point. The whole thing radiates a bittersweet love for a past era and a past youth, and more than simply playing well or being fun, 198X's ability to mechanically and aesthetically express a feeling is what really impressed me.

I have played this game for several hundred hours. I don't know if it's good.

I know the ground combat is really lacking. I know the overlaid systems can be obtrusive and difficult to get into. I know the game can look, and feel, like a decade-old MMO.

I know it has made me feel ways no other MMO has successfully made me feel. I know the story content can be incredibly engrossing. I know the game was crafted with so much love for Star Trek that it's impossible not to feel it seeping out of every sidequest and easter egg and little interaction, right down to stowing a tribble in your stash, forgetting about it for a week and returning to find you're out of space.

I know when I am feeling particularly anxious I'll boot it up, get in my flagship and just slowly fly through space for awhile.

I do not know if Star Trek Online is good. I do know that I love it.

The worst of the classic FF games. I get having love for it, but it is just such a mess of inexplicable design choices and half-baked narrative and quite possibly the least likable cast of characters in any RPG, ever.

It's a short, touching little narrative piece. If you've followed Caitlin Doughty or other public speakers in the funeral business you know most of what it's going to say already, but it still presents it quite well, and it's a hell of a rarity in video games.