Jeremy Jastrzab
10 Feb, 2012
My most memorable PALGN reviews
PALGN Feature | Gamers love nostaligia and lists.
- Tales of Symphonia: This was the first review that I ever wrote for PALGN. It’s probably a little rough around the edges, and it came after a slow start to my PALGN career, but it remains one of my favourite reviews and JRPGs to this day.
- Cricket 2005: My first piece of ‘review code’, and my naïve ways had me thinking that it wasn’t as bad as it was. But no, I definitely over rated it at the time… the game was completely broken! Despite this, it's not quite the worst game that I played while at PALGN...
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: I’ve always been a massive fan of the series, and my first review from it was always going to be memorable. It was also an inspiration help for one my proudest pieces of writing – On top of the World.
- Metal Gear Ac!d: I’ve always been a fan of card games, and it was first time I felt like I went against ‘popular opinion’. If played and understood properly, the game was actually quite brilliant in its execution and application of Metal Gear. The sequel was a bit of a grind though…
- Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones: Again, the chance to review one of my favourite series was just too good to pass up. I would have loved to have been around to review the 2003 release. It was nice to have a double dip with one of the early HD collections.
- Dragon Quest VIII: This was the first Dragon Quest game that I’ve played, and it’s a title that I spent the entire 80 hours playing before I actually reviewed, and helped highlight for me how important it is to review a title after playing the full game, as opposed to only a certain number of hours. A beautiful and emotive storybook game too.
- Rainbow Six Vegas: Even though I’ve never really been a fan of the Rainbow Six series, this somehow ended up being one of my favourite games of 2006, and personally, I found it more enjoyable than Gears of War. It’s one of those situations where things just ‘clicked’.
- Destroy All Humans 2: The game that taught me that what you hear about a game in its development, and what you hear in previews, doesn’t always turn out how you would like it too. It was an interesting highlight in how many games still haven’t managed to grasp the fundamental idea of bringing together some potentially wonderful background story and making it shine in the actual game. And if Homefront is anything to go by, there is still a long way to go…
- The Sims 2: Pets: My 100th official review for PALGN… Yay?
- Lost Planet: The game that, for me, announced the arrival of the HD generation. A supremely beautiful and engaging arcade experience that highlighted for me the benefits of advanced tech, especially in facing the moth and worm. A shame the sequel ruined what could have been a wonderful new franchise.
- Shadowrun: How often have you read in a preview “well, maybe they’ll fix it in time for the final release”. Well, this was the game that proved to me that once a game is in a playable form during a preview, it’s unlikely to change much… so I never did get to see the potential for improvement to actually happen.
- Vampire Rain: I challenge ANY reviewer out there to prove to me that they played through the entire game. I did. And I don’t regret it. Well actually no, that’s not quite true… It was 20 hours long…
- Halo 3: In the middle of a prosperous and golden era for PALGN, my time in retail allowed me to buy this game early (yes, I did buy it), clock it and dig in several multiplayer hours before everyone got to it. Regardless of whether you agree with the score, to me this stands as a proud moment where PALGN was able to provide a review around the same time as the exclusive sites.
- Stranglehold: A quote from the PALGN preview made it to the cover of the PC version, further highlighting how well things were going for us at the time. It also was a great way to encourage me to actually watch the classic Hong Kong action flick, Hardboiled. The game was awesome arcade fun too, and a shame that it never saw a follow up.
- Lair: The controls of this game were fine… but there were so many other things to complain about! This title felt to me like one that solidified a certain major sites position as the beacon of popular and influential gaming opinion, where everyone seemed to complain about it with a sheep mentality. It will be nice to see the day that this influence is eroded.
- Assassin’s Creed: Screw you all, this game was amazing at the time of release and all the complaints that could be levelled at it are the same as many get away with… And yes, I will dig my heels in with this, it’d be stupid to back down at this point. For mine, this was how I imagined the Prince of Persia series to be translated in the HD era, and the game had a lot of ground breaking initiatives at the time. Some worked, others not so much.
- Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom: A terrible game which I had little consensus to draw by, except one review which I was written by an individual from the time who was quite notorious, but I didn’t know about it. I don’t know what was worse, the fact I let the douche dupe me, or the echoing garbles of the hordes of enemies that I faced. And this game has ruined both Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls for me… these three all play the same!
- Lost Odyssey: This is probably my favourite JRPG of the current generation, and one that I’d hoped was going to act as a beacon for more. The story was very strong and had an excellent balance that meant you didn’t need to grind your way through the game.
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: Disagree and call me a tasteless douche or agree and call me ‘aniki’. It doesn’t matter because I loved this game and would have given it a higher score if I could at the time. I enjoyed the ride from start to finish, and there really wasn’t anything that I could call out for. But that’s me. It’s the first and remains only one of three scores that I’ve given of that magnitude.
- Braid: What in the name of all that is sacred was I thinking when I scored this game? While it is a brilliant mix of puzzler and platformer, it’s also probably the most pretentious title I’ve played during my entire time at PALGN.
- Gears of War 2: This is probably the biggest reaction that I’ve ever received on a review, which not only spanned PALGN but several other sites. It still amazes me to this day, how passionately some responders were convinced about what the score should have been… even two days before they could have possibly played it. To an extent, I miss how vehemently these things used to be debated…
- Dead Space: After a long and difficult personal period, it was playing and reviewing this that sparked some life back into me… and probably took a little bit off it too. A genuinely frightening title that still has me thinking about how I didn’t want to go around another corner…
- Valkyria Chronicles: A title that I am very glad didn’t end up getting lost in the post, as it arrived quite late but as they say, better late than never. It’s unfortunate that there hasn’t been anything like it since, but it was an excellent amalgamation of anime, action and strategy. It just would have been nice if the game wasn’t so harsh on my strategies.
- Prince of Persia (2008): A grossly underrated title for mine, and some of the most memorable and innovative moments in the medium, and one of the most endearing endings that I’ve seen in a game. It pushed the envelope in a way which I haven’t seen since, and I’m still yearning for a proper follow up.
- The Godfather 2: Official PALGN review number 200! Better than 100 at least…
- Afro Samurai: My personal sleeper hit for 2009. It actually was a very well realised licensed title that complements the anime very well. And one day, everyone will look back after playing Metal Gear Solid Rising: Revengeance, and thank this game for allowed that concept to come about.
- Terminator Salvation: Probably the worst game that I reviewed during my time at PALGN. Thankfully, it only lasted around four hours… which can’t be said about the 20 hour monstrosity that was Vampire Rain. If you bought it for the achievements, you should give yourself an uppercut.
- Cursed Mountain: Easily my favourite Wii game and a title that highlighted for me what happens when the critics are ‘doing it wrong’. Please learn how to play a game before making bad remarks about it. And it also highlighted to me the potential for applying aspects such as religion to a title, and how well they can possibly be done.
- Nier: As my life got busier and gaming started to fall into the background, I still managed to find the time to engrossingly trudge through the most under rated title of 2010. Nier ought to be experience by anyone who wants to know just how it’s possible to do things differently in an otherwise stale genre, and the second play through completely flips things around. That, and I managed to get all four endings before Jarrod even had a PS3 and began his clerical journey to spread the word of Cavia.
- Red Dead Redemption: I’ve never been a fan of GTA or most Rockstar titles. Somehow though, Red Dead Redemption managed to keep me entirely engrossed throughout. That and it’s another case of a title that I have no idea how anyone could have justified reviewing it without reaching the most ‘oh hells yeah!’ ending of 2010.
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: For mine, the ideal example of how a reboot should be done, as well as a brilliant and reverent marriage of gaming and classical literature. Any game reviewer who compared it to Underworld needs to be taken out the back and shot.
- Fable III: Singlehandedly, the most disappointing game that I reviewed for PALGN. It had all the makings of a brilliant game, still had its moments but overall, the disappointment felt here was borderline on heartbreaking.
- Outland: A beautiful and memorable title that more people need to play. A rare title that kept me up to ridiculous hours during a rare period of free and unhindered time. And it harked back to a time when all I did was play high quality platformers.
- Skyrim: Before this, I have never liked any of the past Elder Scrolls titles, but somehow managed to fall in love with this vast and desolate landscape. It has dragons so that’s cool. But then again, so did Lair.
- Sonic CD: This is a title that can sum up a lot of my time at PALGN. I’d never played through a Sonic title before this one, but when I did I actually enjoyed it. Had it not been for PALGN, I wouldn’t have had a chance to experience half the titles that I ended up playing and my gaming palette would have been worse off for it. And it goes to show that it’s never too late to try new games and experiences.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: This review was meant to be my last, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Still, this was an opportunity to get away from convention, to just play, write and forget about everything that was afflicting the site and regain the vision for why I joined up in the crazy business in the first place. This will definitely go down as one of my favourite games of all time.
- Soul Calibur V: While this may be officially my last review for PALGN, just like the tale of swords is eternally retold, I hope that the fires of everyone’s gaming passion continue to burn bright into the distant future.
I would like to thank everyone who has read, commented on, disagreed with, loved, hated or was indifferent about anything that I’ve written over the years. It’s been a truly memorable and awesome time. Has there been any particular PALGN review that was memorable for you?
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