Been busy running family errands and chopping up fallen trees today to post or play anything, but I might as well add this one now that I've been working on for a few days and finally finished:
It's been a while since I played a Far Cry game, and even longer since I played
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. A few years ago, Ubisoft released a "Classic Edition" remaster on modern consoles that was widely criticized for running at 30 FPS. Well, as Ubisoft is wont to do, they recently put out an update to unlock the other 30 frames, so I've finally gotten around to playing this remaster.
The setup is simple enough: you are Michael Beihn, a cyborg supersoldier, and you're tasked with taking out a rogue cyber commando who has taken over an island with his army of cyber soldiers, cyber dogs, cyber sharks, and the deadliest creatures of all: the laser-spewing Blood Dragons. Perhaps you're sensing a theme here. You wander the island, capture garrisons, do brief missions where you take out enemies with particular weapons or free hostages. There are only 7 story missions, so it's a quick ride if you want it to be. I, of course, had to run around collecting all the VHS taps, CRT tapes, and complete all the side missions.
Overall, it's still a good game, though it's worth noting both that this game was made during the height of the 80s nostalgia boom and Ubisoft's "subversive" era. As such, the theming of the game can be a bit overbearing at times, and the humor can be both pretty tired and depressing at times...considering a lot of the jokes are at the expense of Ubisoft game design, which has not improved in any meaningful way since Blood Dragon's original 2013 release. It doesn't help that Michael Beihn was never the greatest actor, and he seems to alternate between completely phoning his lines in and just being...Michael Beihn.
It's not funny when modern games are basically just doing that now.
Blood Dragon walks a very careful line between absolute sincerity to the bit and absolutely no shits to give, particularly in the retro cutscenes. And the game is basically over once you unlock the explosive rounds for your sniper rifle, as nothing in the game can stand up to a semi-automatic sniper rifle shooting grenades. If you're not a fan of 80s movies, you'll find this game's style grating.
What does absolutely elevate this game, though, is Power Glove's outstanding soundtrack, which was clearly inspired by the likes of the original Terminator, Predator, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHcFO7pUi9Y&list=PLu6_FOgZp3ehDEMebGB4uDbN5yMYOthnP&index=25This game also has one of my all-time favorite game trailers. Say what you will about mid-2000s Ubisoft, but they definitely had the passion at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dofacvjRkcI wouldn't get too comfortable at the top of the leaderboard there, Khush. I still have a card or 2 to play before this is all over.
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It's a pretty barebones experience. Not as barebones or minimalist as Ubisoft's Jeopardy! for Switch but still pretty basic. When playing Solo, there's an Easy Mode and Normal Mode. From trying to find information online, that's it. There's no unlockable Hard or Expert mode. In a bit of irony, the Easy mode I found harder than the Normal mode. The Easy mode is designed to be a bit more family friendly to allow children to compete with mom and dad. Except some of the questions that I guess they feel kids would know were some things that tripped me up. I lost a few times so then I thought I'd switch ( 
