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Reviews
A-10 Cuba! (1996)
One of the best Flight Sims ever made
A-10 Cuba is certainly an old game and the graphics are seriously basic and bad by today's standards. But the sheer playability and fun flying experience is simply excellent.
The landscape graphics are solid colours and devoid of any real textures, but buildings, bridges, tanks and aircraft are acceptably detailed enough to enjoy blasting them to smithereens with a huge selection of weaponry.
The silly sun (graphic) in the sky looks shockingly bad and was criticized when the game was launched. That is the game's worst feature.
Unlike many Flight sims on consoles, landing the aircraft in A-10 Cuba is not like landing a cardboard box that suddenly blows up or sticks to the ground. This is a real flight simulation with screeching wheels and realistic crumpling of the landing gear if you land too hard! You can buckle the wheels and still take off, even though you may have to take off squint! Something modern games don't allow and simplify the landing process as if it is a toy. This simulator is excellent and one of the best ever made (despite it being such an old game).
Parts of the wings can be shot to pieces, but allow you to limp home (apparently, just like the real aircraft!). Weapons are numerous and very satisfying to use. Enemies smoke, break up and explode with basic effects, but it is still satisfying.
The missions can be played any way you desire and there is ample room for "making your own missions" within a mission scenario. There is no mission builder, but the existing missions are excellent.
This flight sim is pure joy : Landing, refueling, rearming, taking off, attacking ground targets, attacking aircraft and flying is pure joy.
Inside (2016)
A Masterclass of Game Design
Few games can stand out as absolute classic. In my opinion, this one is certainly up there as one of the best games of all time.
The simplistic platform-negotiation (As natural landscape) soon develops into some intriguing natural and not so natural little puzzles.
There are many moments that are very memorable and leave you with a desire to tell friends and show off challenging puzzles or scary moments you managed to survive.
I liked the secret balls that can be discovered and deactivated. A nice additional objective to revisit later to "get them all".
The finale in this game has to be regarded as a classic in gaming history, Your spectacular transformation into a multi-limb being is weird, hilarious and just wonderful to control! The game then takes on a whole new feel of "What the heck?!"
I remember being amazed that the game was not over yet and that I was actually able to control this monstrosity...or at least stumble about and bump into walls and smash stuff!
Suddenly the game sprang into a new height of FUN and challenge. The new learning curve of puzzles related to this massive blob creature were also very satisfying and fun.
When it came to a sad end, I hoped there could possibly be a sequel, but realised that there probably wouldn't be one...or will there?
The Cave (2013)
A Delightful Masterpiece
On the surface, The Cave can initially look like a bog-standard fairly repetitive side scrolling platformer with some different characters. It is actually a gem of a game and great FUN to play even multiple times.
The Cave commentator holds the game together nicely with some funny and memorable quips now and again. A very nice idea that works wonderfully.
The characters are not all equally endearing, but the replay-ability of selecting a different team of 3 is very nice and better than the usual easy, normal and hard options for gameplay.
Once you get into the "character swap teamwork" gameplay, it unfolds into a very FUN, fairly easy, very satisfying experience.
I will point out 1 element I was initially annoyed about (PC version) : You only have 1 game save and you cannot replay at a specific puzzle or Zone. However, replaying the whole game again (likely with different characters), from the beginning is not as tedious as you may think!
The tasks and puzzles are all fairly easy, but very satisfying. Most tasks involve finding a specific object and using it. E.g. Dynamite: light it via flame and drop at area (run away) to destroy a blocked exit. Other objects have less obvious uses and this adds to the sense of achievement when you work it out. E,g, (NO SPOILER) You have a Hermit in a boat and you need him out so your 3 characters can escape from an island as it seats only 3 ! A few objects are involved in solving this very clever puzzle!
Later, the tasks can get trickier when you need to jump from character to character and "time" your actions. Sometimes all 3 need to be working together.
I needed to resort to "YouTube solutions" for some of the more obscure puzzles e.g. The 3 flying carpets!
I loved the fact, your characters never die, but respawn in a puff of smoke nearby. This removes frustrating mistakes and keeps you happy and on task. Even the object they were carrying is re-spawned with them (if it is required).
Depending on which 3 characters you choose, you will be led to the same zones and a few different ones as well! All the Zones are beautifully crafted and I would suggest switching off the music to enhance some of the atmospherics and sound effects.
As an experienced Level Designer myself, I really appreciated the obvious care and efforts made to make such a nice looking, atmospheric, enjoyable, professionally polished FUN game.
The gameplay is perfectly balanced to allow most ages of users to progress to the very end of the game and have fun doing so. Some may find it too easy and get annoyed with the repetition of some of the tasks, but this is more of a relaxing game than a racing to the finish.
I would love to work on a sequel to The Cave, perhaps involving the adventures of "The Hermit", "his parrot" and "Spanky his dog"!
Andor (2022)
Andor : 1% cool 99% utter dull garbage!
I had hopes and expectations that this latest star wars series would at least be equal to The Mandalorian , The Book of Boba Fett or even The slightly disappointing Obi Wan Kenobi.
When the red droid is introduced and it "has a stu...stu...stutter", that pretty nicely set up the standard of what to expect in terms of "creative content"! I wondered if this series was written for 4 year olds with no ability to reason out what is stupid and what works nicely!
Then we see some poor idiot has a job thumping a metal slab (human clock) to get everyone to work! With all the technology they are swimming in, they couldn't rig up a bell and a button?! Who came up with this great idea with zero context to the technology available? Ahh. Probably the same 4 year old child who wanted a droid with a stu...stu..stutter (because it adds character?).
A spaceship crash lands and a bunch of well dressed tree people approach and find 2 dead men outside the ship, but one is not dead and shoots the leader girl. Then, without checking inside the massive craft for any other men with guns, they all completely ignore the danger and make a noise and fuss around the downed girl, sweeping her off back to camp. Then the little boy is left standing with his back to the open door of the ship and 50 men spew out and kill him. Actually, luckily for him and the tribe, no-one else came out! Who decided that scene was satisfactory!?
Fast forward and the only scene worth watching is a TIE fighter flight and flypast. The rest is 99% boring "couldn't care less about anyone or anything" story-line.
Star Wars has become a dull mess of meaningless character plots with barely anything cool to talk about in terms of action. Watching a field of turnips growing is more interesting...apart from a flypast by a TIE Fighter!