@VGGenerations

I’m Mike, an erstwhile indie dev and podcaster, now a newsletter author (it's totally free) and game mini-reviewer with no patience for the anti-woke crowd.

 Kansas
vggpodcast.com/news
Joined July 2014
  • Tweets6.6K
  • Following1.5K
  • Followers760
1.8KMedia
Surprise! VGGN issue #47 is out now. In this issue, I take a look at Xbox Exhibition demo discs and PS2 JamPack demo discs. Also: why I'm becoming disillusioned by AAA gaming. Read it: vggpodcast.com/news/vggn-047… Archive: vggpodcast.com/news Get Notified: vggn.eo.page/sub
1
3
60
Absolutely nobody is talking about Warrior Cats, but this might be fun. It might also finally get me to write a VGGN issue about games where you play as a cat, which I’ve been postponing for a year.
2
57
Today is "We Were Here Tomorrow" day for anybody who celebrates. It's disappointing that PS Plus is required, so there's the added expensive of a month of that, but I think it'll be worth it since the prior games were so great. store.playstation.com/en-us/…
2
57
Mini-Review: Haunting Ground (PS2) At times, I loved this for its sprawling locations that are fun to discover and explore, cool puzzles (classic Resident Evil style), and fantastic art design. No between-room loading during gameplay makes it seamless. At other times, I hated…
1
1
96
…it and wanted to throw my controller through the screen because, while not necessarily a hard game, the "scares" amount to a series of individual pursuers (also taken from early Resident Evil) that can be downright frustrating, sapping the fun out of it when it's sometimes…
1
1
38
…easier to reset the game than spend 15 minutes trying to run and find a good place to recover or hide. I usually like fixed-angle cinematic views (no camera control), but found myself running the wrong way far too often after scene transitions. At least I got the best ending.
1
16
Mini-Review: Kuon (PS2) Before FromSoftware invented a whole action RPG sub-genre with Demon's Souls, they made a variety of games in a variety of genres, including the Armored Core series, Otogi, King's Field, Echo Night, and this, an occult-focused third-person horror game…
1
3
107
…for PS2 that's become ridiculously expensive of late. Thankfully, I started my collection many years ago, and so when the mood finally struck to play Kuon for spooky month, I was ready. As FromSoftware games go, this is on the much easier side (on normal). A limited resource…
2
2
36
…is needed to save (a la ResEvil typewriter ribbons), which is antithetical to my play style, but since it's not overly hard, I made them last. There are puzzles, creepy children that sing, melee and magic, and three intertwined chapters to see the whole story. I liked it a lot.
1
15
Mini-Review: Silent Hill Townfall (PS5 Pro) My spooky month begins with a game that, for me, totally redeems Konami's misstep with last year's Silent Hill f. In Townfall, that classic Silent Hill experience is (mostly) back, with pacing that knows when to send players into the…
1
2
195
…nightmare world of rust and rot, and when to pull back into the less traumatic (and sometimes even safe) "real" world. Puzzles are prominent and a little more complex. The story is fantastic as well, leaving me with my usual head-scratching contradiction of thinking I get it…
1
3
29
…but not quite getting it. This is one of the few series where getting the bad ending (which I always seem to do, sadly) seems perfectly valid and fitting. If it wasn't clear before, I really enjoyed SH Townfall despite it not actually being set in Silent Hill, and recommend it.
1
24
Mini-Review: The Blood of Dawnwalker (PS5) If anybody wonders (and doesn't already know) why this open-world third-person action RPG feels Witcher-inspired, it's because some of the core Rebel Wolves team are veterans of CD Projekt Red. If anybody wonders why it's not set in…
1
6
191
…modern day like that one short teaser trailer showed (I stayed in the dark purposely so I was surprised), I'm not going to spoil it for you. I'll be honest, I wasn't feeling this game at first. I felt like I was just going through the motions, focusing on open-world events to…
1
3
23
…level up and raise my notoriety, watching that 30-day counter tick down. Actions/quests use blocks of time. It's not actually on a constant timer and you can even exceed it for a less satisfying ending. Once I started playing the real story, it was amazing. Highly recommended.
2
12
Dear @XBOX. The only reason I haven’t bought a single Xbox game this generation is because you’re only putting out key discs or partial builds. Commit to full disc releases now and for next gen, and I’d be an Xbox-first gamer. I suspect other like-minded gamers would as well.
4
162
Mini-Review: Astronite (PS5) It's easy to look at a game like this, knowing nothing else about it, and think it's probably a simple low-effort platformer that was made in a hurry and may not even be worth playing. For Astronite, that would be completely wrong. It's everything…
1
3
55
…I want from a Metroidvania, except color. Okay, maybe not everything, but the animation and effects are great, the story kept me engaged, and its two souls-like mechanics fit well (enemies respawn when saving, and your "money" is dropped for collection when you die, but that…
1
2
22
…becomes irrelevant later in the game once you buy everything). There are secret areas and upgrades to find, puzzles to solve, fun bosses, optional retro rooms (I won't spoil), a 10-wave optional arena (I gave up), and only a couple stupid-hard platforming areas. This was great.
1
10
Mini-Review: Knight's Night! (PS5) I'm planning a VGGN issue about video games that are fully (or mostly) in black and white (or monochrome) in the next few weeks, and I came across this simple platformer that looked interesting. After struggling to beat the first level a few…
1
3
145
…times, it finally clicked, and the remaining levels (of 25 total) were fun and never too difficult. I liked this little game for what it is, but I do have three main complaints. One, the chiptunes-style music is good, but instead of sticking to a theme throughout a level or a…
1
2
23
…set of levels, they play one after another and then repeat, making them feel less special/memorable. Two, new abilities (dash, double-jump, and air dash) come much later, meaning half the game lacks them. Three, there's no story payoff at the end; just a "you won" equivalent.
1
12
Load more