Recent reviews by Festive Floyd

Though considered the black sheep of the Doom family, Doom 3 Still managed to be a good game in its own right.

Considerably slower paced and more focused on atmosphere than gunplay, Doom 3 feels more like it was driven by the desire to advance the technology for the time. However, this doesn't mean the game isn't fun. I think most of the weapons feel pretty good (except the shotgun) and most of the enemies are challenging enough to keep you on your toes.

You have the standard enemy roster from previous games, such as the imps, hell knights, revenants, mancubi, archviles, etc., but also introduced are some new demons. Unfortunately, most of these newer enemies don't really stand out as much, and some straight up disappear halfway through the game, only to show back up towards the end. Doom 3 relies heavily on the imp however, and he's the enemy you're gonna be fighting the most throughout the game. I played through the game on the hardest difficulty and found it to be decently challenging for the most part, though early levels feel almost like you're sleepwalking your way through with how few enemies you fight at a given time.
That's another thing that sets Doom 3 apart from its predecessors: you usually fight maybe 3-5 enemies at most at any given time. Unless it's a clearly designed arena in which you may fight waves of different groups of 3-5 enemies. It can get very predictable.

But I think what really makes Doom 3 shine is the sound design and lighting. This game looks stunning even today, almost 20 years on from its release. The fact that this was released in the same year as Half-Life 2 is almost kind of insane.

In the end, even though Doom 3 isn't my favorite game, it's definitely still pretty fun and worth checking out. It's also open-sourced now and incredibly moddable. The Dark Mod uses id-tech 4 and started off as a mod for this game and it's one of my favorite things to play.

Doom 64 was my introduction to the Doom franchise as a little kid. I would watch my dad play it on our N64, marveling at the graphics, the sound design, the weapons, and the eerie atmosphere. Playing with the N64 controller was unwieldy, so my dad never got very far into the game but my imagination would run wild with what the game had in store for players who managed to delve deeper into Hell.

Fast forward 20 something years later and this remaster hits stores. I had played Doom64EX, which required an actual Doom64 ROM in order to work, and was a bit of a pain in the ass, but I was still enamored with the game. Coming back to it all these years later, and it still hits the same way it did when I was a kid. It feels so good to play; the weapons are punchy and have added effects that weren't in the original Dooms (such as the chaingun shaking the screen while you fire it), the levels are great with some challenging secrets to uncover, some of which utilize the new (for the time) scripting, enemies are beautifully designed, and the atmosphere is second to none in the Doom franchise.

If you're a Doom vet, you might get a decent challenge out of it. Or you might find it a bit too easy. Either way, though, this is a must play. More Doom is always a good thing.

Having followed Cultic since the first demo a few years back and now finally picking up Chapter 1, I can confidently say that this is probably on my top 3 favorite boomer shooters of the past few years. The game has gotten compared to Blood a fair bit since it was announced, and that's not by accident. The cultists adorned in ragged robes, chucking dynamite your way and uttering incantations in a strange language as they chip away at your health, the ultra bloody combat, gibs flying everywhere, eyeballs watching you step over the bodies you've extracted them from, and the moody gothic vibes all contribute to a truly exhilarating shooter experience.

The weapon roster on display is not too different from the usual genre fare; sporting super shotguns, pistols, grenade launchers, even a flamethrower. However, Cultic has a weapon upgrade system that allows you to slightly modify your weapons to be more powerful, accurate, and with larger capacities by finding "weapons parts" that are mostly hidden in secrets. It's a great incentive to get you looking for those elusive secrets aside from just offering more ammo, health, or armor. Every weapon feels great, with sound effects that emphasize the punchy nature of each gun. Blowing a cultist's head off never felt so satisfying.

The levels feel pretty big for a boomer shooter, but they're used effectively by giving you plenty of enemies to blow apart and secrets to go looking for. There's also logs in the forms of diary entries and typewriter pages that give you more context to the story if you so desire it.

I can't recommend this game enough. For a one-man team, this is an incredible feat. Jason Smith is constantly updating the game and it's clear that this is a pure labor of love on his part. I can't commend him enough for working so hard on this game, communicating with the community, and just overall being one sick dude for making one of the best shooters in recent memory.

Ghosts are real and they tried to eat my ass.

If you've never played Deus Ex before, you may have heard a lot of people say it's one of the greatest games of all time. What makes it so great? Is it the combat, which requires you have proficiency in certain weapon types to be able to competently use them? Is it the various other skills which enable you to traverse the levels in different ways, uncover secrets, and find clues? Is it the story that draws you in, making you care not just for the protagonist, but his allies, with enemies whose motivations are clear and understandable?

The answer is yes to all of the above. Deus Ex wasn't the first narrative focused RPG, but its subject matter and approach are one of a kind, even to this day. You didn't often get stories at the time which dealt with questions of liberty, tyranny, economic disparity, and global conspiracy at the time. Deus Ex 's story encourages you to reckon with your own personal ideology, which culminates in an ending that forces you to confront paths that you may not be 100% comfortable with.

I've only recently finished the entire game, despite having first played it over 10 years ago, so my opinions on the latter part of the story aren't tainted by rose-colored glasses. Whilst earlier levels are more easily ghosted (going through an entire level without being detected, no kills), later levels make this much more difficult, which should provide an ample challenge for any seasoned stealth player. Stealth isn't the only way to play though. If you put points into explosives and heavy weapons, you can mow down anyone who stands in your way, as well as blow open doors that you might not have the lockpicks or skill to unlock.

The world itself is incredibly reactive. Go into the women's restroom, and you'll be chastised by your boss at UNATCO. Make a comment to a fellow agent about how superior your abilities are to hers, and she'll remind you of your arrogance at every turn. Assist the local gangs, or take them on. The world will react to all of these choices, and people you encounter will comment on them. It's the little things that make Deus Ex feel like a living, breathing world, even without a gigantic world map and thousands of NPCs populating the streets.

The music, as well, is one of the major highlights of the game. Composed by 4 different people, all of whom add their own spin to the game's atmosphere, and all of which are memorable. From the instantly recognizable and relaxing UNATCO theme, to the boppin' club music, to the tense urgency of Enemy Within, and the solemn, almost elegiac Duclare Chateau, the music will burrow itself into your ears, and you'll be listening to it for weeks after playing.

Today, the game may require some modding to get to work properly on modern systems without weird FPS drops or memory problems. But because it runs on Unreal 1, these problems are easily fixed, and there's a heap of guides on Steam to help you get the game running so you can experience one of the best games of all time. If you haven't played it yet, there's no better time to start than now. Deus Ex is timeless, a masterpiece of storytelling, game design, and of the cyberpunk genre as a whole.

HROT is pretty unique in that it's an old-school FPS but unlike many of its kind, its level design is much more claustrophobic. Normally I wouldn't like such a thing but when the game opens up into wider open areas and spawns a bunch of enemies, those enemies already hit hard enough in close quarters that seeing so many in one area ramps up the tension by 10. The music is mostly ambient and lends itself greatly to the oppressive atmosphere, as everything is some shade of brown or grey. Secrets are challenging and rewarding to find, and the weapons are satisfyingly punchy and impactful. The boss fights are sufficiently weird and challenging, and HROT manages to have spider enemies that actually creep me out.

I can't wait for further episodes. Buy it.

I thought Doom 2016 was the perfect FPS when I first played it 3 years ago on my PS4. It was fast paced, action packed, heavy hitting, and all the other buzzwords people like to throw at a Good Game.

Then Doom Eternal came along and made Doom16 look like babby's first schuter.

Everything about Doom Eternal is a step up from its predecessor. It isn't content to let you stand back and kill every enemy with your favorite weapon, as it challenges you to come up with weapon and item combinations to kill faster and harder with the least damage taken. I played through the game on HMP for my first go and even then i found the game to be decently challenging. Going from that to Ultra-Violence feels like removing the training wheels, as the game is more content to punish you for small mistakes.

Don't get the wrong idea, the game isn't unfair. It's not punishing you for the sake of it. It's not trial & error. It respects the player and expects the same in return. If you go into every encounter relying entirely on your SSG, you're going to die. If you rely on one weapon you will die. If you don't move, and use the available items like grenades and flame blech, you will die. The game demands you get better at it to achieve the feeling of being a true slayer.

If you're looking for a game to really master, look no further.

Simulation games became a bit of a meme throughout the 10's and because of that I never took any really seriously until I bought this. I never had much interest in trucking or anything like that but playing this game is one of the most cathartic, relaxing experiences I've had with a game. Everything from the sound design, to the detail of the locations, everything fits to give you a cozy experience of trucking. Putting on some music and making deliveries and racking up the dough is a rewarding time and I can recommend it to anybody that even has the vaguest of interests in playing a game where you drive and obey the rules of the road.

Quake is the quintessential 90's FPS. With the new level of verticality the Quake engine used as opposed to Doom, the boys at ID Software were able to create some of the most unique and imaginative levels they could, and for the most part, they stand up pretty well to date.

Each Episode has an individual theme: Episode 1 will be familiar to most Doom vets as it's mostly science labs and military outposts. Episode 2 is where things get a little different, as the game shifts from that old familiar feeling to the dark, foreboding halls of Castles and chaotic magic, ending in a confrontation with the Vore, one of the most powerful enemies in the game. Episode 3 mostly continues that theme while introducing the Vore as a mainstay of the enemy roster. Episode 4 (which is my least favorite episode) takes a new turn with more tricks and traps to contend with, and introducing the least realized of all the enemies in the game, the Spawn, which is a hoppy little blue ♥♥♥♥ that won't ♥♥♥♥ off and explodes when it dies.

The end of Quake thrusts you into confrontation with the evil mastermind of it all, Shub-Niggurath, as you shoot down shamblers and vores on your way to telefrag her. The End.

Where Quake stands out is how well realized the movement was for a FPS in 1996 within a full 3D environment. You move with incredible agility and have a host of techniques at your disposal which are unintentional side effects of the engine (like strafe-jumping, rocket jumping, bunnyhopping, etc.) However you decide to tackle Quake is up to you, as it's just as accommodating for all playstyles as its predecessor.

Quake's influence on the FPS genre cannot be overstated. Even now, we see games coming out that take clear inspiration from it, among others, such as Dusk and Wrath: Aeon of Ruin. It's because of Quake that speedrunning became such a huge phenomenon, and kickstarted a whole subgenre of multiplayer in Arena FPS games.
I'll be honest and say that I don't like Quake nearly as much as I love Doom. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy myself for the most part when I played Quake (until the game bugged out and wouldn't let me fight the final boss :^)) If you don't have Quake in your games library, it's time to buy it and start it up and see what the big deal is.

Simply comparing DUSK to its predecessors isn't enough to describe how great of a game it is. Not only does it take inspiration from games like Quake, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Half Life, and Serious Sam, it stands among them as one of the greatest of all time.

Each level is dripping in an oppressive atmosphere that's enough to put you on edge just as much as it is likely to make you rip & tear through the hordes of demonic spawn that await to eviscerate you. The music is fantastic, drifting from atmospheric ambience to thrashing metal and everything in between.

The level design is where DUSK truly stands out and sets it above its predecessors. For as memorable and amazing as the levels in Quake and Doom were, there's nothing in those games like Episode 2's "The Escher Labs", which is a mindbending experience and probably one of my favorite levels in any game ever made.

If there's one game you don't wanna miss out on before the year is done, this is it.