Recent reviews by Ben McLean

Here's what I don't get: why aren't you playing the role of the guy who actually had to clean Biff's car in the movie, who is actually referred to in dialogue in Back to the Future 2?

Biff's classic 1950s car is not available as a model in this DLC. You get Doc's van, the Delorean time machine from the first film, the clock tower from the first film, the Holomax theater from the second film (although still on the 1950s Hill Valley set, oddly) and the time train from the third film.

No flying Mr. Fusion DeLorean from the second film, no stripped down tireless DeLorean from the third film, no Marty's red truck and no Biff's car. Seems like they could have also done Doc's 1980s house, Doc's 1950s mansion, the McFly home from any time period, Biff's alternate 1980s penthouse and the diner or saloon from any of the films -- particularly since we actually see Goldie Wilson cleaning the place in the first film so maybe he could use some help.

Still, if my complaint is that they should have made more of it then that means it deserves a recommend. Maybe they could include more in a future Part 2 DLC? Or maybe they could get in touch with Cyan Worlds and make a DLC where we clean up locations from Myst!

It's a pretty fun little puzzle game but it could use more depth.

The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe is a fun and worthwhile bucket. Some people want to argue that it's not a "bucket" and I think that's stupid, but regardless, it's engaging enough to be worth looking at whether it technically qualifies as a "bucket" or not.

Hyperbolica's good.
Good and short, so you get the point of it and it doesn't drag on.
Definitely worth it to get the chance to explore curved space.

Cult of the Wind is a great game. There is nothing wrong with it.

And solely because it was a genuine indie game without $200k to blow on marketing to get the idiot gamer kids to even try it, there are no players. None.

Why didn't the gaming press help champion a high quality indie title like this so it would get the public recognition it deserved? Games journalists were busy talking about Depression Quest and "Gamers are Dead" instead of this. They weren't doing their jobs in 2014 and that's why Cult of the Wind failed.

This represents a failure, not of the developers, but of the entire games business and I would cite it as one of the things that have discouraged me from trying to get into commercial game development as a career. As an indie game developer, you can do absolutely everything right and still fail. That is disgusting.

"A Short Hike" is a small scale 3D open world collect-a-thon with graphics intentionally reminiscent of the Gameboy Advance. Fun simple gameplay and very easy, suitable for small children and even game journalists to play. The soundtrack is also quite nice. It reminded me of Michael Giacchino's score for Pixar's Up. You'll finish the main game in about an hour I'd estimate, although 100% completionists will have many more things left to do.

That's the good news. The bad news is that A Short Hike has a problem which the vast majority of 3D third person collect-a-thons have, which is that the camera doesn't always show an angle conducive to the action. This game handles that problem better than most I've seen but the issue is still present and noticable. Still, you can't fault a little indie game like this for failing to solve a problem that has plagued its entire genre for a quarter century.

Great 16-bit themed follow-up to the 8-bit Retro City Rampage.

This game is way too random. Too much luck, not enough strategy.

You get to play as a Sand People. The goal of the game is to kidnap R2-D2. I didn't see R2-D2. 0/10

Seriously tho, the impressive part doesn't show up until immediately after the end credits when it's revealed that you have been playing alongside actual people and it tells you who they were.

That was nifty but other than that, this is a strictly linear game with very little in the way of puzzles and almost no player choices at any point. At least back in the '90s, we had to hunt for keycards, which gave us at least SOME choices of where to go. This game crams you into its single set of linear corridors with a literal snowshovel. I feel like my time would have been better spent watching a film, especially one with dialogue. But I played this when I was having a really bad day, so that may be coloring my perception of it a little.

Still, you can't deny the fancy schmancy graphics. Might as well try it if it's on sale sometime. But I hope no one bought a PS4 just for this.

It is wonderful to see the Chex Warrior back in action. I was one of those kids who actually got the original Chex Quest CD out of my cereal box in 1996. I know the original game pretty well and this new version really nails the aesthetic. This new version of Chex Quest looks great and sounds great. The new cutscenes are good and the new characters seem to make sense if this is going to be multiplayer. I am definitely going to buy some of the Chex Mix to get the codes too. :) There are, however, a few criticisms I'd make about the single-player:

1. The enemy AI is atrocious. 1996 Chex Quest simply copied the Doom enemy AI, so enemy behavior wasn't an issue. This new version seems to have blind enemies that don't detect the player even when the player zaps them from behind, and will sometimes make sounds like they've detected the player even after they've been defeated. This suggests some programming bugs going on that it would be real nice to see fixed in an update.

2. The combat feels very floaty and slow. Turning up the sensitivity helps but the overall feel is that this controls more like Halo than like Doom. Not a dealbreaker but definitely a drawback. One example of why this game feels slow is that the animation for switching weapons takes way too long.

3. It would be nice to have a way to re-bind the controls.

4. I really hope that the full game will be unlocked for everyone DRM-free after the promotion ends. Just like the original, we want this game to still be playable in 2044!

(Spoiler warning)
There's about an hour and a half of content in the free main story and a wonderful end cut-scene I absolutely loved for completing it. It doesn't copy the original levels but it has new shorter levels INSPIRED by the old levels, sort of like Sonic Mania. This is fine because the level design here, while not mind-blowing, is better than in the old game. Fully recommend!