Recent reviews by VAEΞ ASTRA

As someone who played 09 and the Re-Up on back to back days the day I got them on the winter sale, binging them on every turn and loving every moment, laughing and feeling for everyone despite their bad natures,... I feel really empty after playing The Flip Side.

I kinda need you to consider: The game peaked for me when I got the "Your Future" ending. It was by far the best ending of the entire game, maybe even, dare I say, the best ending of the entire series. It perfectly, seamlessly, and thematically connected one of the darkest endings of the original 09 to the Flip side, making it a perfect thematic and narrative parallel to this new ending, where we see the aftermath of what happened on Jecka's side; hence, the flipside.

But this was my first playthrough, about probably 30-45 minutes in. And then the whole experience just teeters and falls off.

As one reviewer puts it, the whole experience feels like a Jecka Torture porn game. From her really abusive dad to the FYE Ending, even the other two endings and routes which we'll definitely talk about. It feels exploitative in a way the original never felt. For as awful as the characters are, the one takeaway I got from the original 09 is that while this world is capable of cruelty, we should not exert that same cruelty onto others, lest we create a cycle of continuous misery.But this whole experience feels like a hate piece towards the original, especially towards Jecka. For as cruel as Jecka may be, did she really deserve the sheer amount of cruelty thrown her way, especially when Nicole was involved?

And really, this whole experience the more I think about it, feels antithetical towards the original, especially regarding... the TWO foot routes.....

I don't want to go further into the routes, for obvious reasons, but the two routes feel so off putting and gross in a way that breaks one of the ethos of the series, that being against low hanging fan service that typical anime/manga would do. The scenes in the foot routes wouldn't be far off in something you would see in a really low grade ecchi or h-game. It made for one good laugh, yeah, but afterwards it felt really gross and like a betrayal of the original 09 and all of the themes and commentary it had over anime. Especially regarding Nicole.Everyone knows she’s a terrible person in the original 2, but not without, at least, some cause of why and what pushed her to do such things. This game felt like a character assassination towards her; here, she’s cruel for the sake of cruelty, nothing else.

I have seen the Imgur pic of SBN3 saying this was just a low effort job because he thought no journalist would notice, but judging by the reception by the user reviews, it’s fair to say that a lot of people, myself included, are really disappointed. I really expected a lot more from the Flipside; but with one amazing route, one ok one, one really weird/ off putting one, and two really gross ones, this really wasn’t worth the hype.

God isn’t watching. But the fans are. Honestly, you should have said nothing.

See you in September, Captain Titus.

yeah its pretty fun.

Yeah it was pretty fun. This Michael Mando guy seems to play a good criminal, wonder what he's been up to lately.

He's kinda cringe, he hacked into my laptop, and ngl, he's pretty good lookin.

I remember something said by Noah Gervais from YouTube when he commented on why the early Call of Duty games were so great in their Single-player campaigns, and it basically boiled down to the fact that you can't show real war and have fun, but you can at least make a solid action game that references the conflict in meaningful and interesting ways.

Well it seems Spec Ops The Line threw out that philosophy and made the corniest and least fun game they could make. It seems they wanted to subvert the genre by having this """brutal""" war game with terrible controls but also the goofiest writing and the least subtle messaging that "WAR IS BAD AND STOP HAVING FUN IN THIS UNFUN GENRE", and it just makes for such a pretentious, laughable, and borderline pathetic experience.

If they wanted to make a commentary on how Modern Military Shooters from the time were slipping into nihilistic military propaganda, all they had to do is just basically make a game like the original Call of Duty; something so simple and understandable that people would've realized that the genre was slipping into ridiculous and nihilistic depths. But no, they wanted their cake and to eat it to, and it just comes off as spineless and fraudulent.

The fact Yahtzee chose this as his game of the year is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy. And you wonder why there are still modern military games to this day.

It's easy to make something un-subtle, over the top and in your face. It's harder to make something dead simple and understandable to all.

Edit: as much as I think this game is a load of sh*t, it shouldn’t have been delisted. Even games I personally think are bad deserve the right to exist. 2K, get off you lazy ass, and get this game back on the Steam store.

I have an air fryer now, time to watch air fry with skye.

Are ya coping, kids?

Cute girls, fun gameplay, enough said.

Basically more of the same, with a couple of balance changes and a worse final boss. If you liked The New Order you'll probably like this too.