Recent reviews by Valentine

Despite my negative review, Tower Unite still offers some genuinely good experiences, and I would recommend getting the game on a sale if you are iffy, but this review is like a personal grievance, as a (Somewhat but miniscule to some of the real OGs) longtime player and fan.
For the record this is maybe one of my favorite games of all time but asking for kickstarter donations for an Elevator Source re-release and reimagining when there are still a myriad of problems in this VERY unfinished game (despite what 1.0 and dropping the early access label would like to say) and original promises still unkept about features that at this point never feel like they will be added, watching this game evolve with a process only comparable to chaos and randomness, sometimes you wonder if the devs wish they were just done with it all and want to wash their hands of it, and it really feels that way.
Also, this is a social game and the moderation options are horrendous. The deeper layers of the community and the drama that unfolds is insane and ridiculous as you might imagine from a game like this. This might be tolerable if it werent for the fact that if you host a game lobby you have ZERO options. Cant kick someone, cant ban them, can't start a vote to, its frankly ridiculous because if someone feels like it they can just harass you or piss off the lobby until you just block them. Someone can just join and sling naughty words in voice chat and your only real option is to report them, block them, THEN host a new lobby and hope that a fraction of the people dont just leave and move on to a different one. Team fortress two at least figured this out over a decade and a half ago now, for some reason PixelTail still cant since this has been a feature that has been changed multiple times over the lifecycle.
I always figured that this game would have more potential to shine than VR chat, but nowadays I can only really hop on every so often just to enjoy some time with my friends and wish there was more. I will always appreciate this game for how much it got me through covid in my last 2 years of highschool, but being an adult now it just feels like a distant memory of what Tower Unite should have been and could have been. Also I think planet panic should be added back even though it sucks because it would be the funniest option.

When this got nominated for game of the year I was confused and now I have to limit myself to one successful run a day or else I will not stop playing this game until the sun goes up. Localthunk is truly the joker of all time because only one person could come up with a joke so sick and twisted to make so many people waste hours of their lives on a poker roguelike.

If you ever wanted to know what it's like to repeatedly smash your head against a wall expecting to find gold in your skull, Rainworld replicates this experience perfectly. Beginning this game with zero knowledge and having absolutely zero clue on what you are doing and getting eaten by the same lizard over and over again, or kidnapped by a vulture, is something that can only be described as frustrating. This game will tell you nothing and it expects you to learn through trial and error, and not in the way that other games do, because the only information you will be told is how to jump, grabbing items, eating, and hibernating. Everything else is for you to learn like a baby taking their first steps.
Completing your first play-through and moving onto hunter, and becoming the apex predator through grit, violence, and sweat, nothing other than rainworld can replicate the feeling, and we havent even begun discussing the environments, the storytelling that comes with it, and the immersion. And the soundtrack. Good God man the soundtrack.
Play the game, go in blind. Do yourself a favor and only look up a guide after asking yourself a hundred times "have I really hit the limit on what to do next."

Inexcusable that a product which can break your game and make it unplayable is released like this. Fifteen dollars.

Randy Pitchford once again finds new ways to ruin my life.

Might just be the best-not-the-best game in the entire series

Havent cared for Terraria in the modern day for the last 6 years let alone modded but I played Calamity on Infernum for the first time and just imagine that clip of Danny Devito saying "Oh my God....I get it...." as my reaction once I fought Anahita and Leviathan.

It absolutely breaks my heart to make a negative review for this game, because Disco Elysium has impacted my life more than any media, or rather *anything* in my life in such a beautiful and amazing way.
This is the best game you will ever play. It is a wonderful parody on life and has a message and story that can not be replicated by any movie, book, or game you could ever engage in. The shareholders and company however had stolen the rights through incredibly shady means, and that means no support you give to this game goes to the original creators, as Zaum themselves have removed them from the company. Ironic, and cruel.
While I "do not condone pirating," I would say, for the love of God, please find "alternative means" to play Disco Elysium. I promise as a random stranger on the internet, you will not regret it.
Zaum, go ♥♥♥♥ yourselves. You can try to turn this into some sort of franchise, and I hope when you realize when whatever future product you produce will fail miserably because you fail to understand the most basic concept of *Firing the original creator of a 20 year old project and putting them on an NDA* would be a bad idea.

Hood classic

This is going to be my first serious and long review as it is 4:30 am and once again Celeste has come to my rescue when I am trapped with my thoughts.
Celeste is a victory in both platforming and storytelling. It's gameplay is incredibly fun and addictive, and it feels fantastic to slowly master. The soundtrack is among one of the best videogame osts I have ever listened to, with every single track having a remixed version for its remixed stages. Dying hundreds of times means nothing when you finally make it to the end of a difficult stage that was kicking your ass. All the while, you go through an amazing story involving Madeline quite literally fighting her inner demons, with the absolute *perfect* metaphor of climbing that mountain. The genius behind it must have been explained over a thousand times already, but it is still worth mentioning. You as a player, taking control of Madeline, repeatedly dying and refusing to give up, leans into what that could mean for yourself as a player and as a person. You refuse to give up, you refuse to stop playing through, and by extension, climbing the mountain of Celeste. Meanwhile, Madeline goes through intense depressive episodes and panic attacks, but much like you, she comes out on the top. Madeline represents the player in a way no other game is able to nail quite as hard on the head, and the message of climbing the metaphorical mountain of life's problems and your own inner doubts and depressions, leading to the story, lessons, and gameplay to blend in perfectly with eachother, complimenting itself in the absolute best way possible.
After completing every single stage, the b-sides, c-sides, and the final sendoff of chapter nine, and replaying this game over 6 times, getting better and better after each attempt, every single time I was ever dealing with a rough patch in my life (I originally got the game on epic for free, so I have much more hours than listed on steam and owned it for a much longer time) I can confidently say that Celeste has somehow managed to become one of my favorite games of all time. and while not my absolute favorite, it holds a special place in my heart that no other game has ever been able to bring out of me.
If you ever own this game and you get stuck on a difficult screen or stage, do not give up because you'd be betraying every single aspect of the game. Dust yourself off and keep climbing, because I guarantee you will feel amazing afterwards.
Easily a 5/5. Do yourself a favor and play it as soon as you can.