Love/Hate is a series on IC2S where I take a media franchise and go through each entry, going through what I love and what I hate about it. Really, it’s that simple!
Bioshock
Bioshock: Final Thoughts (BONUS)
And with that, we have completed another Love/Hate series here on IC2S! As soon as I finished Burial at Sea – Episode II and realized that I had no more Bioshock games left to play,…
Love/Hate: Bioshock Infinite
Welcome back to the Bioshock Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be covering the final game in the franchise (thus far), Bioshock Infinite. Disappointed that Bioshock 2 had been handed off to a different development…
Love/Hate: Bioshock 2
Welcome back to the Bioshock Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be covering Bioshock 2, a sequel commissioned by 2K Games while series’ creator Ken Levine was off working on a more ambitious follow-up. I…
Love/Hate: Bioshock
Oh hey, it’s time for another Love/Hate series here on IC2S! After writing the list of my 100 favourite games ever, I had an overwhelming itch to replay Bioshock. The last time I played it…
Ninja Gaiden
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden – Ragebound
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series! It’s been a few months now since I embarked on my journey to play every Ninja Gaiden game (and their various revisions), but I knew that I…
Ninja Gaiden: Final Thoughts (BONUS)
And with that, we have completed another Love/Hate series here on IC2S! Suffice to say, this was quite the undertaking: I ended up playing nineteen games (most of them to completion) over the course of…
Love/Hate: Ninja Ryukenden (1991) (BONUS)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series! We’ve covered all the Ninja Gaiden video games that I could get my hands on, so we’re coming in with a bonus entry for the Ninja Gaiden…
Love/Hate: Yaiba – Ninja Gaiden Z (2012)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series on IC2S! In this entry, we’ll be looking at the most recent Ninja Gaiden game (excluding re-releases), Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, a strange spin-off featuring zombies and…
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden 3 (2012)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be looking at Ninja Gaiden 3 and its revised version, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. This was the first entry in the modern…
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden II (2008)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be looking at Ninja Gaiden II, which was originally released in 2008 on the Xbox 360. This was the first Ninja Gaiden game…
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden – Dragon Sword (2008)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series on IC2S! In this entry, we’ll be looking at Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, a curious little interquel released on the Nintendo DS. This game was very experimental,…
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden (2004)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series on IC2S! It’s finally time for the entry you’ve all been waiting for: the 2004 reboot of Ninja Gaiden! This game was actually the second Ninja Gaiden…
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden (Master System) (1992)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be looking at Ninja Gaiden for the Sega Master System! Once again, this is an entirely new entry in the franchise, despite sharing…
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden (Game Gear) (1991)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be looking at Ninja Gaiden for the Sega Game Gear! Despite what its title would suggest, this is not a port of the…
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden Shadow (1991)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be looking at Ninja Gaiden Shadow, a prequel to the NES trilogy released for the Game Boy! I’m always super leery about Game…
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden III – The Ancient Ship of Doom (1991)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be looking at the final entry in the NES trilogy, Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom! With the NES era coming…
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden II – The Dark Sword of Chaos (1990)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be looking at Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, the direct sequel to the NES Ninja Gaiden! With the revolutionary success…
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden (1988)
Welcome back to the Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be going back to the “true” beginning of this franchise: the other 1988 Ninja Gaiden game released on the NES! Despite sharing a…
Love/Hate: Ninja Gaiden (Arcade) (1988)
It’s time for the long-awaited Ninja Gaiden Love/Hate series here on IC2S! This series has been a long time coming, largely down to me being an obsessive psycho: it wasn’t enough to play nearly every…
Halo
Halo: Final Thoughts (BONUS)
And with that, we have completed another Love/Hate series here on IC2S! I’m so glad that I managed to finally get through the Halo games – like I said at the start, I’ve had a…
Love/Hate: Halo Infinite
Welcome back to the Halo love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over the most recent game in the franchise Halo Infinite. After all the shit 343 Industries had put the fanbase through, expectations…
Love/Hate: Halo 5 – Guardians
Welcome back to the Halo love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over Halo 5: Guardians. I’ve been well aware of this game’s reputation long before I played it: stories about the marketing being…
Love/Hate: Halo 4
Welcome back to the Halo love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over Halo 4, the first new entry in the series by 343 Industries! I’ve heard really mixed things about this game over…
Love/Hate: Halo – Reach
Welcome back to the Halo love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over the final Bungie-developed Halo game, Halo: Reach! Going in, this was probably the Halo game I knew the least about, but…
Love/Hate: Halo 3 – ODST
Welcome back to the Halo love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over our first spin-off title, Halo 3: ODST! This was a weird little release: the series’ overarching narrative seemed to have concluded,…
Love/Hate: Halo 3
Welcome back to the Halo love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over the series’ third entry, Halo 3! We’re now past the point where I had any first-hand experience with these games: I…
Love/Hate: Halo 2
Welcome back to the Halo love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over the series’ second entry, Halo 2! Like I said in the first entry, I had played a bit of Halo 2’s…
Love/Hate: Halo – Combat Evolved
Surprise! It’s time for a new love/hate series! As you can probably tell, we’re going to be diving into the Halo franchise, going over all the mainline entries and their campaigns. Multiplayer is a pretty…
Dead or Alive
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
Welcome back to the Dead or Alive Love/Hate series! Yeah, that’s right, we’ve got a special little addendum to last year’s big Love/Hate project. At that time, I mentioned that I wasn’t able to play…
Video Game Review: Venus Vacation Prism – Dead or Alive Xtreme (400th Blog Post Celebration!)
Man, when I started this blog thirteen years ago, I never would have expected that I’d manage to reach four hundred posts! I had started a couple blogs prior to this one and those struggled…
Dead or Alive: Final Thoughts (BONUS)
Whoo, that was quite the journey I just went through. Dead or Alive is such a weird fixation for me. I got into it through its shared universe with Ninja Gaiden and really got into…
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation
Welcome back to the Dead or Alive Love/Hate series! For this final entry, we’ll be looking at Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation. Remember how I said that there was a free to play version…
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive 6
Welcome back to the Dead or Alive Love/Hate series! In this entry we’ll be looking at the most recent mainline game in the franchise, Dead or Alive 6. This game has had a bit of…
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive Xtreme 3
Welcome back to the Dead or Alive Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be looking at Dead or Alive Xtreme 3. For my 200th Blog Post celebration, I reviewed this game for the memes. I…
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive 5
Welcome back to the Dead or Alive Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be looking at Dead or Alive 5. This was my first DOA game: having played all the Ninja Gaiden games on PS…
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive – Dimensions
Welcome back to the Dead or Alive Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be taking another detour, this time to the 3DS with Dead or Alive: Dimensions. This is a weird little spin-off for a…
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive Paradise
Welcome back to the Dead or Alive Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’re covering Dead or Alive Paradise. So, confession time: I was originally planning on covering Xtreme 2 next, and would just off-handedly mention…
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive 4
Welcome back to the Dead or Alive Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be looking at Dead or Alive 4. This was the first Dead or Alive game following Xtreme Beach Volleyball, and was the…
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
Welcome back to the Dead or Alive Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’re covering the first game in the notorious Dead or Alive spin-off franchise, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. What can I say…
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive 3
Welcome back to the Dead or Alive Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’re going to be covering the next entry in the series, Dead or Alive 3. Having never owned an Xbox, and not being…
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive 2
Welcome back to the Dead or Alive Love/Hate series! In this entry, we’ll be moving onto the next game in the series, Dead or Alive 2. As I said in the previous entry, the original…
Love/Hate: Dead or Alive
Dead or Alive has basically become a meme around IC2S. I wouldn’t even count any of these games amongst my top 50 all-time favourites, and I’m not particularly good at fighting games… and yet, there’s…
Ape Escape
Love/Hate: Ape Escape – Pumped & Primed
Welcome back to the Ape Escape Love/Hate series! As I alluded to at the end of the Ape Escape 2001 Love/Hate article, I’ve decided that I am going to dabble with some of the franchise’s…
Love/Hate: Ape Escape 2001
Welcome back to the Ape Escape Love/Hate series! I covered the main entries in this franchise last year, and at the time I had noted that there were several spin-offs that I was not intending…
Love/Hate: Ape Escape 3
Welcome back to the Ape Escape Love/Hate series! In this entry we’ll be looking at the final, mainline Ape Escape game, Ape Escape 3! For whatever reason, despite loving the first two Ape Escape games,…
Love/Hate: Ape Escape 2
Welcome back to the Ape Escape Love/Hate series! In this entry we’ll be looking at the PS2 sequel, Ape Escape 2! I remember seeing this game on shelves when it was new and immediately snatching…
Love/Hate: Ape Escape
It’s time for a new Love/Hate series on IC2S! For those who have been following my Resident Evil playthroughs, don’t worry – I intend to resume the Resident Evil entries this year. In the meantime,…
Resident Evil
Love/Hate: Resident Evil 1.5 (BONUS)
Welcome back to a very special bonus entry in the Resident Evil love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over the original version of Resident Evil 2, dubbed by fans as Resident Evil 1.5.…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil 3 – Nemesis
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis! I’ve got quite a history with this game in particular – I can remember…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil 2
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over the original Resident Evil 2! Often considered the best of the “classic” era of Resident Evil, its popularity has been…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! Now that we’ve been through all the main entries in the franchise, it’s only appropriate to go back to the beginning with the original PS1 trilogy. Naturally,…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil – Dead Aim
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over the third, and final, Survivor game, Resident Evil: Dead Aim! I’ve been pretty up-front with my thoughts on the first…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil Survivor 2 – Code: Veronica
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! In this entry we’ll be going over one of the most obscure titles in this franchise, Resident Evil Survivor 2 – Code: Veronica! The original Survivor is,…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil – Code: Veronica X
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! It has been quite a while since the last entry, but I’m finally ready and able to continue the series with Resident Evil – Code: Veronica X!…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil – Operation Raccoon City
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! In this entry we’re looking at Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, an intriguing spinoff for a number of reasons. For one thing, it was released in the…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil Gaiden
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! In this entry we’re looking at the truly bizarre and unique Resident Evil Gaiden, the oft-overlooked, non-canon Game Boy Color spin-off that started Resident Evil’s obsession with…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil Village
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! In this entry we’re looking at Resident Evil Village, the most recent entry in the franchise thus far. After the successful resurrection of the franchise with Resident…
Love/Hate: Umbrella Corps
Yeah that’s right, this one doesn’t even have the Resident Evil moniker, Capcom literally just called it Umbrella Corps. I’m not even going to mince words, this game fucking sucks. It is far and away…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil – Revelations 2
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! In this entry we’re looking at Resident Evil: Revelations 2, a game which, in hindsight, feels like Capcom testing the waters between Resident Evil 6 and 7.…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil – Revelations
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! In this entry we’re going to start arguably the most prominent and popular spin-off series in the franchise, Resident Evil: Revelations. Conceived as an interquel set between…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil 0
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! In this entry we’re going to be looking at Resident Evil 0, the oft-overlooked Game Cube prequel to the original game. Having come out at a time…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil Survivor
Welcome back to the Resident Evil love/hate series! Previously we went through the series from the remake of the original to Resident Evil 7. At the time I said I’d pickup the franchise’s several spin-offs…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
After the bloated and unpolished Resident Evil 6, excitement for a new mainline Resident Evil game was at an all-time low. Capcom were certainly aware of this and actually took their criticisms to heart. Resident…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil 6
Resident Evil 6 is often considered the point where the franchise jumped the shark, leading to Capcom’s total rehaul of the series with Resident Evil 7 and REmake 2. I also never played it and…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5 was actually the first Resident Evil game I got far into. I had a friend in high school who was a big fan of the series and when this game came out…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4 is often considered one of the greatest games of all time, having reinvented the Resident Evil franchise and whose influence changed the way action and horror games were made to this day.…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil 3 (Remake)
While the remake of Resident Evil 2 was widely acclaimed, the follow-up remake of Resident Evil 3 has been one of the most divisive games in the entire franchise. Some people hate it, some people…
Love/Hate: Resident Evil 2 (Remake)
It took nearly twenty years, but fans finally got the Resident Evil 2 remake they had been begging Capcom for. While I had played several Resident Evil games over the years, this was actually the…
Dead Space
Love/Hate: Dead Space Extended Universe
From the very beginning Dead Space was conceived as a multi-media franchise. To that end it managed to build up quite the impressive collection of extended universe material in the five years it was active.…
Love/Hate: Dead Space 3
Man, I was being nice to this game back when I wrote my original review of it. The intervening years have made me more and more hostile to Dead Space 3, especially considering that EA…
Love/Hate: Dead Space 2
Welcome back to the next entry in the Dead Space Love/Hate series. Today we’re going to be looking at Dead Space 2, which is probably my favourite entry in the franchise and straight-up one of…
Love/Hate: Dead Space – Extraction
For the second entry in the Dead Space Love/Hate series, we have Dead Space: Extraction, the shockingly good rail shooter spinoff for the Wii… like, just typing that out makes it even more surprising that…
Love/Hate: Dead Space
Dead Space is one of my favourite video game franchises. It’s like it’s made to appeal to me – horror, sci-fi and twisted monsters intent on tearing you apart. During the series’ hey-day, I enthusiastically…
PlayStation
Love/Hate: PS4
Love The Games – The PS4 has been a massive success and that mainly comes down to one thing: Sony have done an incredible job of cultivating high-profile exclusive games in a variety of genres. God…
Love/Hate: PS Vita
Love Amazing Hardware – The hardware of the PS Vita is, simply put, fantastic. In fact, I’d argue that hardware-wise it’s probably the most perfect PlayStation product in terms of power, function and design. Power-wise,…
Love/Hate: PS3
Love Trophies – Probably my favourite innovation that the PS3 brought was the advent of trophies (which, to be fair, were modelled after the Xbox’s achievements system). These things are so addictive though. Basically, as…
Love/Hate: PSP
Love Great Hardware – The PSP was a really great little handheld. It was very well-designed, felt great in your hand and had some great features, even outside of gaming. Having played only Gameboys up…
Love/Hate: PS2
Love Built-in DVD Player – Having a CD player in the PS1 was a nice convenience, but the DVD player in the PS2 was huge. For many people (my family included), the PS2 was our…
Love/Hate: PS1
Hey, it’s time for another Love/Hate series! This time we’re going to be going through each of the generations of PlayStation consoles and handhelds! I’ve always been a PlayStation fanboy, having grown up along with…
Dark Souls
Love/Hate – Nioh
I’m going to do something slightly different here – normally I’d just be looking at the Dark Souls trilogy itself when doing a love/hate series, but I’m actually going to change it up slightly and include…
Love/Hate – Dark Souls 3
Love Refined Game Engine – As groundbreaking as the Souls games are, they have always been incredibly janky and take some time to get used to how clunky they can be (not to mention the extremely…
Love/Hate – Bloodborne
While it isn’t actually a part of the Souls series, Bloodborne is in a similar mold with some very key differences. In fact, FromSoftware would take inspiration from Bloodborne and carry it forward to the Souls-series proper. As…
Love/Hate – Dark Souls 2
Love Some Memorable Characters – Somewhat surprisingly, Dark Souls 2 has a lot of characters which hold up as well (or maybe even better) than the colourful cast from the original Dark Souls. Nearly all of…
Love/Hate – Dark Souls
I recently began replaying Dark Souls, this time on PS4 with the remastered edition. Having played a ton of Soulsborne and Souls-like games in the past few years, it’s fascinating going back to the game which…
Pokemon
Love/Hate: Pokemon Scarlet & Violet
Welcome back to the Pokemon love/hate series! We’re covering the newest mainline entry in the franchise today, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. There’s been plenty said about these games already and they’ve quickly become some of…
Love/Hate: Let’s Go, Eevee!
It has been a while since I did a Pokemon Love/Hate and you may notice that there was one glaring, recent omission from my list – where were the Let’s Go games? I have had…
Love/Hate: Pokemon Sword & Shield
Over a year ago I wrote the first of what would become my Love/Hate series, a retrospective of the pros and cons of each generation of Pokemon. Since then, we’ve obviously gotten the start of…
Love/Hate: Pokemon Gen 7
Generation 7 (Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, Ultra Moon) Love Much-Needed Gameplay Refinements and Improved Accessibility – I’m going to break this down into two parts: On the refinement end of things, HMs are finally dead!!! Thank…
Love/Hate: Pokemon Gen 6
Generation 6 (X, Y, Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire) Love New Graphics Engine Shines – The pseudo-3D sprites in Gen 5 were impressive, but Gen 6’s fully 3D models were definitely the direction that the series…
Love/Hate: Pokemon Gen 5
Generation 5 (Black, White, Black 2, White 2) Love Insane Refinement and Ambition – Gen 5 was the first generation of Pokemon since Gen 2 to have a second game release on the same system,…
Love/Hate: Pokemon Gen 4
Generation 4 (Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver) Love Physical/Special Split Totally Changed the Game – As I’ve said before, in the first 3 generations, moves were classed as special or physical, depending on their typing (eg, all Water attacks…
Love/Hate: Pokemon Gen 3
(Just a disclaimer on this entry, Generation 3 is the only gen that I haven’t experienced first-hand. As a result, thoughts on this generation are based on the changes that it made to the series,…
Love/Hate: Pokemon Gen 2
Generation 2 (Gold, Silver, Crystal) Love Quality of Life Improvements – It cannot be overstated just how much better to play the Gen 2 games are, mainly due to some major quality of life refinements. For example,…
Love/Hate: Pokemon Gen 1
It isn’t really something that I have mentioned here on IC2S, but I absolutely love the Pokemon franchise, particularly the flagship handheld games. I have many fond memories of getting ahold of a classic Gameboy,…