52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

Wozzer · Jan 1, 2023

A thread for people that are trying to play 52 games in a year. Tell us how you're doing and what you are going to play next - claim a post and update us on your progress!

How do I take part?
Claim a 'main post' where you will list all your completions for the year. You can use fancy images or special formatting to make it extra cool. In addition to this post your updates, completions and thoughts as singular posts throughout the year.

Does my main post need to adhere to a format?
Nope! We previously did, but now you can have it formatted however you like. Take some inspiration from previous year posts. Here's a beautiful one from 2020 or a fancy baseball one from 2021.

Do I need to post reviews, scores, dates and stuff?
Also nope! It is highly recommended to spruce up your completions with mini reviews, a score (for example 2/5), your playtime duration, date completed, platform or any such fun statistical information but it's not required. You do you.

What's that Hall of Fame thing?
Those who beat the challenge get placed in the shrine that is the 'Hall of Fame'™. Furthermore you'll get a pretty little medal that denotes how many years you've overcome the challenge. Cool kids have been doing this for over five years.

How do I know when I've completed a game?
That can be tricky to determine, but it's ultimately up to you. If its a straightforward single player game then it's typically when the credits roll, but if it's say a multiplayer session based game maybe its when you've unlocked a certain feature or completed a battle pass.

Do the completions need to be games released this year?
Nope; any video game will suffice. It can be first plays or replays, classics or recent releases. It can be a game you started last year but are finishing this year.

Do board games count?
They do not. Vidya games only here.

I want to record durations, do I have to manually count?
No, most platforms (Steam, Xbox, Nintendo, etc) will do the duration tracking for you! If in doubt you can also use sites like HLTB to fill in the blanks.

Do episodic games count as a single game or X amount of games?
That's up to you. It's alright to count something like Life is Strange as one or five games. Your choice, for whatever makes sense with how you've been playing. Ask other users if in doubt.

What should I do once I've completed the challenge?
Send me a DM on this platform, with a link to your post that shows all the games you've completed, and I'll make you thread famous by adding you to the Hall of FameTM. If I take a while to respond don't panic, I tend to go into periods of hibernation throughout the year.

Is there a deadline?
Until Dec 31st 2023 @ 11.59pm!

Archive: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 (shout out to VisceralBowl for the 2017 thread)

Starting in 2020 our Discord (http://discord.backlogbeat.com/) has since grown to over 150 members. Among discussing the 52 Challenge (posting updates, picking games, etc) we also coordinate a slew of other totally cool game activities (additional context @ backlogbeat.com)…

A play on a traditional book club that sees us choosing and collectively playing a nominated game per month, sharing our thoughts and opinions through to beating it. Those who beat the current nomination get entered into the raffle to pick the next months; share your favourite games or recent releases you're excited for with us!

Jan: Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising	Jul: Paranormasight
Feb: Pentiment	Aug: Fall Guys
Mar: Koudelka	Sep: Ys Origin
Apr: Cube Escape Paradox	Oct: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
May: Unheard - Voices of Crime	Nov: Unsighted
Jun: Planet of Lana	Dec: Polybius

It's the same thing as above, but only for movies! Similar approach in that all you need to do is watch the nominated film to acquire a raffle ticket with an even lower bar to enter as most choices can be completed with a leisurely sub 3 hour investment.

Jan: Bad Times at the El Royale	Jul: Titane
Feb: Arrival	Aug: The Prestige
Mar: Schindler's List	Sep: Coherence
Apr: Django Unchained	Oct: The Addams Family
May: IP Man	Nov: V for Vendetta
Jun: The House	Dec: Violent Night

Sometimes it's tricky to get a thing nominated but there's enough folk playing it that it makes sense to carve a dedicated place and play together. Elden Ring is a great example of a game that reaches new heights when played alongside others.

Come say hey, everyone is welcome and folks from these threads are our favourite kind of people! You'll likely see a lot of familiar faces :)

The brave individuals that overcome the challenge this year;

The additional survivors who overcame the challenge of the previous years thread;

And below are the legacy participants from years prior who we hope to see return to us this year;

And so there lists all those that have risen to the challenge during this or prior years! If you see yourself beating the challenge, please remember to send me a DM with your post once you're done!

Illusionary · Jan 1, 2023

Welcome to 2023 everyone! Reserving my post here.

2022: 94 games
2021: 104 games
2020: 99 games
2019: 73 games
2018: 90 games
2017: 72 games

1. The Case of the Golden Idol (PC - Steam) | 1 January 2022 | 9/10
Completed with all achievements unlocked, no hints used. The Curse of the Golden Idol is a very welcome addition to the underserved genre of detective games. Presenting players with a series of scenarios each following a recent death, the core task of the game is to deduce the preceding events, from observation of various aspects of the environment. This is done primarily through interaction with specific hot-spots in each case (almost of which span multiple linked scenes), which can then reveal simple descriptions, lines of dialogue, letters or other texts, etc.; a "thinking" panel then describes each scene with a large number of blank spaces that need to be filled. It's a simple precise but pulled off incredibly well, with an impressive level of detail in each scene and just enough clues to make the 'solution' accessible but far from immediately obvious. As the game progresses, the level of complexity of each case ramps up significantly, building to tell an engaging narrative arc that spans the entire game.

The inspiration provided by Return of the Obra Dinn is clear - and if you enjoyed that you''ll certainly have a good time here - but The Case of the Golden Idol is a tighter, more accessible take on the detective genre. Don't be put off by the outwardly primitive, even unattractive graphical style, as after only a brief time with the game this seems entirely fitting, and in particular allows the important details of each scene to be clearly emphasised.

2. Paperbark (PC - Steam) | 2 January 2023 | 6/10
Complete playthrough. Paperbark tells a simple but charming story of a hungry wombat out exploring and foraging for food, but finding itself in the midst of a summer wildfire. Probably the standout feature here is the watercolour artstyle, which is genuinely beautiful and effectively showcases some of the diversity of Australian wildlife; the developer's passion for this natural world is clear to see. At well under an hour to play through from scratch and only limited interactivity beyond that of a typical 'walking simulator', even with a set of collectibles to extend that Paperbark won't last long - but it's a decently enjoyable, well-made experience all the same.

3. Iris.Fall (Xbox One (Game Pass)) | 8 January 2023 | 6/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). Iris.Fall is a decent but unremarkable puzzle game, largely based around the manipulation of light and shadow to facilitate navigation towards the exit of each 3D environment. With the protagonist being a young girl somewhat reminiscent of Lewis Carroll's Alice, there's an unusual, fairly attractive stylised graphical style, but the puzzle-solving is generally fairly basic, often with a trial-and-error requirement to discern how puzzle elements behave that doesn't prove to be particularly satisfying.

4. Horizon: Forbidden West (PS5) | 8 January 2023 | 10/10
Completed with platinum trophy earned, 100% in-game progression, all datapoints collected. I simply adore pretty much every part of the world of Horizon, and Forbidden West takes everything from the already superb Zero Dawn, expanding and polishing it to achieve a masterpiece result.

Absolutely the technical pinnacle of 2022's game releases, Forbidden West's expansive open-world is stunningly beautiful and a joy to explore. From the numerous settlements, to the imposing machines and the simple natural beauty through which they roam, the world of Forbidden West might be dying, but it always feels fantastically alive. Plenty of times I'd just stop and take it all in - and even as someone who doesn't really use photo modes in games, this one had me engaged a good number of times.

Combat is of course also at the game's heart, and encounters with the imposing dinosaur-like machines - with even greater diversity here than Zero Dawn - never get old. There's little that's quite as satisfying as tearing off the disc-launcher from a Thunderjaw and using it against the T-Rex-inspired giant - but lesser encounters are just as dynamic, with small, more manoeuvrable machines dancing around Aloy to provide a different manner of challenge.

While the developing story was never going to have the same degree of revelation as the first game and the origins of the (in-game) Zero Dawn project, Forbidden West's developments are just as gripping, sharply written throughout and with a diverse, engaging cast of significant characters. Of course, Ashly Burch as protagonist Aloy is the standout performance here, but other, both 'big name' and lesser-known actors provide excellent support - Lance Reddick and Carrie-Anne Moss being the best known. A final note has to go to the soundtrack, with great breath always fitting the scenario, all throughout matching the 'wild' sense of the game's world - but particularly headlined by Aloy's Theme and opening title track In The Flood.

5. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (PC - Xbox (Game Pass)) | 12 January 2023 | 6/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). Acting as a prequel to the upcoming Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, Rising is a fairly basic side-scrolling action-RPG that has a certain charm but quickly becomes very repetitive. The gameplay loop is pretty much entirely built around a long series of fetch-quests - some simply requiring moving around the single 'town' environment, others achieved through exploring a small set of dungeon environments and fighting the various monsters within. This combat can be enjoyable to an extent, with three distinct characters able to co-operate with a satisfying 'link' mechanic, though again the general simplicity is seen with only one being controllable at a time.

The game is bright and colourful, with detailed, attractive environments that feel alive despite the limited interactivity that they offer. Alongside this, the characterisation of each party member is quite fun and their personalities each come across well, though within the confines of a fairly uninteresting plot. Of course, this may well fit in quite nicely when we see Hundred Heroes eventually release, but it's hard to say just now. It does need to be acknowledged, though, that with the entire game here being the result of a Kickstarter stretch goal, what's been achieved on a very small budget is impressive.

6. Metroid Planets (PC) | 14 January 2023 | 8/10
Planet Novus completed with 100% item collection. Metroid Planets is a highly impressive fan game, firstly presenting a fairly faithful remake of the classic NES Metroid, but going far beyond that in a remarkably complete package - as well as just some usability improvements while maintaining largely the same graphics and sound, there's an entire new campaign, completely remixing the game world with a significantly higher difficulty, a randomiser, new boss fights and much more. Overall the gameplay still feels relatively basic when compared to later official Metroid games, but that's a deliberate choice to maintain a level of faithfulness. If you're looking for the classic Metroid experience, without the much more extensive changes introduced by Zero Mission, you won't find any better option than Metroid Planets.

7. Lil Gator Game (Switch) | 15 January 2023 | 7/10
100% in-game completion. Lil Gator Game is a wonderfully charming game, with players taking control of an anthropomorphic young alligator on an imagined quest as he plays with a group of new animal friends. Taking place on a surprisingly large 3D island, the game succeeds at capturing something of the freedom of exploration epitomised by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - albeit still at a much smaller game - with a good-sized cast of playmates to seek out, each of which have some form of task for you. These are never overly deep or challenging - simple fetch quests, 'enemy' hunts or race time trials - for example, but there's enough variety never to get tedious over the game's roughly 4-5 hour duration. That said, with no in-game map it's easy to get a little lost at times, or at least to struggle to find new characters; fortunately for completionists, after reaching the main credits, the game provides a navigation assist for the last 20% or so. Deliberately lo-fi graphics give an artistic feel that contributes to the overall sense of child-like charm, as does the dialogue being presented almost entirely in lower case and various equipment options fitting with how a child's imagination might work - think a stick for a sword or a pot lid for a shield.

8. Pentiment (PC - Xbox (Game Pass)) | 21 January 2023 | 7/10
Complete playthrough. Pentiment is a well-written detective story set in Medieval Bavaria, with players taking control of a travelling artist who finds himself caught up in the investigation following the murder the local lord. The game's stunning graphics in the style of then-contemporary art do an excellent job of creating an authentic atmosphere, allied with a large cast of personable characters - primarily poor villagers and the monks from the local (landowning) abbey. Quite aside from the investigation, it's easy to become invested in the developing relationships between various characters. When it comes to the detective-work, the game presents multiple leads and a tight time-frame that limits how many can be investigated (though with key events progressing time rather than a running clock, this doesn't become overly stressful), designed to ensure that there's always some ambiguity and forcing the player to make difficult decisions in their final accusations. Sadly, a change in direction in the final act drops the pace significantly and while this does culminate in a satisfying conclusion, this can't fully redeem the game from the feeling of tedium that starts to creep in.

9. Please, Touch the Artwork (Switch) | 24 January 2023 | 6/10
All puzzles completed. A puzzle game in three parts, each set of scenarios in Please, Touch the Artwork is based on interaction with a piece of abstract geometric art. The three puzzle types are quite distinct - one (probably the most challenging) requiring the player to replicate a given pattern of coloured regions, with touching a region changing the colour of all adjacent regions, a second based around parsing the path of a character through a network of straight-line roads and intersections, and the final being direct navigation of line mazes. Progression through each set tells a very simple story, providing justification for the scenarios but not really adding much to the overall experience. There are a few interesting ideas here and the game is certainly well-presented, but there's certainly nothing here that advances the puzzle game genre.

10. Perfect Vermin (PC - Steam) | 26 January 2023 | 7/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. An unexpectedly enjoyable surprise, Perfect Vermin is a very short first-person game, set in a small office and challenging the player to exterminate (violently, with a sledgehammer) all 'vermin' within the area, which in fact are disguised as everyday office equipment (chairs, tables, etc.). After some initial mindless smashing, it quickly becomes apparent that the vermin can be identified by their odd placements - think an office chair in the toilet, for example. The introduction of a timer adds a sense of urgency as you progress through a small handful of levels, while a somewhat disturbing, but undeniably intriguing, story plays out in end-of-level scenes. It's all over in around 15-20 minutes, but makes for an enjoyable snack of a game - albeit with an enduring "WTF did I just play?" feeling!

11. Chained Echoes (Xbox One) | 4 February 2023 | 9/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). Far from being 'just another' retro-style JRPG, Chained Echoes is pretty much the highest-quality homage to Chrono Trigger that I've played, succeeding in capturing the meticulous world design, epic narrative scale and, particularly, dynamic tactical feel of its turn-based battle system - and arguably surpassing its clear inspiration in some ways.

Set amidst a war of conquest by a recently-ascended prince, the story follows an expanding party as they seek allies in an attempt to stop the war - and ultimately a much greater threat. While the writing isn't the game's strongest facet, it does a good job of pressing forward the story, remaining compelling in the face of a handful of optional quests - just be warned that the game's first act (of four) is by way the longest, probably around half of the total! The pixelart that depicts the world is unfailingly detailed and attractive, imbuing the environments with a real sense of life - even if the backdrops themselves are mostly static - and with chests, hidden caves and buried treasure spread liberally to reward exploration.

Eschewing a traditional levelling system, character progression in Chained Echoes comes mostly from gradually expanding each party member's skills with points earned from each 'significant' encounter (mostly bosses) and equipment upgrades. This *will* be controversial, but to my mind works well, with the absence of a need to grind making for a refreshing change, and preventing the ability to win battle simply by out-levelling opponents - in-battle tactics are key. This brings me to the game's strongest facet, its battle system, which introduces a truly innovative 'overdrive' system. This sees the party's battle readiness represented by a bar, starting in a minimum position and gradually increasing with attacks/abilities and damage taken as the party 'warms up' and reaches an 'overdrive' level, increasing damage dealt, reducing damage taken and halving skill costs; however, exceeding a limit sees the party 'overheat', instead taking increased damage. Battles then become focused on managing this overdrive level, which is reduced by defending and the use of skills that fit into a rotating type (physical attack, magic attack, buffs, etc.), ensuring an ever-present requirement for tactical thought, always compelling. With a total of 12 diverse characters available, with up to 8 participating in a given battle (4 active, 4 in reserve), an impressive level of variety in approach is possible too. Also notable is the implementation of automatic full-healing after every encounter, an approach that more RPGs really should follow!

It's not perfect, with a few elements that don't quite hit home as they might - a crystal-based weapon customisation system is a notable example that's just a bit too complex and involved to feel worth exploring - but when taken alongside the stunning fact that the whole game was created near-single-handedly, as a complete package Chained Echoes is very impressive.

12. Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series - Klonoa: Door To Phantomile (PS5) | 6 February 2023 | 6/10
13. Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series - Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil (PS5) | 12 February 2023 | 7/10
Completed with platinum trophy earned. In Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, we have a well-made remaster of a pair of classic PS1/PS2 '2.5D' platformers, with an attractive gloss on the original graphics. With this being my first experience with these games, I've not sense of nostalgia around them and found the gameplay to be somewhat slower and floaty than I'd typically prefer in a platformer, with the level design being based around the capturing and throwing of enemies to achieve a double-jump - it's decent enough, but nothing that I found overly inspiring. Mechanically both games are largely similar, though the second game (Lunatea's Veil) mixes things up with occasional forced-scrolling 3D sections - which honestly I didn't find to be particularly enjoyable. Generally the level of difficulty is quite low here, though if you play with a completionist mindset, seeking out all of the collectibles in each level pushes up the difficulty level significantly, quite frequently requiring more involved/advanced movements to reach some out-of-the-way items - and particularly in the second game, sees some interesting use of the '2.5D' approach, as the side-scrolling stages wind their way through 3D space.

14. CrossCode: A New Home (Switch) | 19 February 2023 | 10/10
Complete playthrough, including all side quests. Well, we start from knowing that CrossCode is one of the greatest games of all time - and against that high bar, the A New Home succeeds wonderfully. Adding four new episodes to the base game's story, it's fantastic once again to be back in the company of Emilie, Lukas et al (alongside some characters who we might now have expected, all of whose characterisation is an absolute joy throughout. Adding an expansive new beach area and probably the game's largest dungeon - alongside expansions to other areas, a set of new, high-level quests, area-appropriate enemies and plenty more - there's an impressive amount of content here, all with the same meticulous level design that CrossCode particularly excelled at. I absolutely should not have waited as long as I did to play this, but time has done nothing to lessen the experience.

15. Supraland Crash (PC - Steam) | 25 February 2023 | 8/10
100% in-game completion; 100% of achievements unlocked. Supraland returns with a fully-featured DLC campaign and once again there's an engrossing combination of 3D 'Metroidvania' exploration/upgrading, platforming and puzzles. While it feels that there's a bit of an overuse of relatively minor collectibles required to progress, which don't in themselves provide any direct upgrade (there are now bones, coins and scrap pieces), these don't detract too heavily from the satisfaction of puzzle-solving or finding (and reaching!) a hidden area. A charming sense of humour and fun runs through the game, with its frequent fourth-wall breaking always raising a smile, whether that comes from well-designed achievements or in-game dialogue.

16. Wario Land 3 (GBC - Nintendo Switch Online) | 2 March 2023 | 7/10
All treasures and all music coins collected on all levels, plus time trial runs. For its time, Wario Land 3 is an impressive proto-'Metroidvania', building on the puzzle focus from Wario Land II with levels that, while individually self-contained, change and evolve as treasures are collected from other levels. Once again, it's (nearly) impossible for Wario to die, with enemies instead inflicting temporary status effects - which in fact are often key to progressing through various obstacles (e.g., blocks that can only be passed with flames), though at other times can be frustrating with time spent waiting for them to expire. The levels are generally well-designed and expansive, though the intricacy with which some treasures (which are the game's key collectible) are hidden does get a bit excessive at times - and the overall pace of gameplay is quite slow, which won't appeal to everyone. Playing via emulation would definitely be my recommendation, where 'rewind' functionality can help to mitigate much of the frustration where it does occur.

17. Metroid Prime Remastered (Switch) | 8 March 2023 | 9/10
Completed on normal difficulty with 100% of scans, 100% of items collected. A thoroughly excellent remaster of a well-deserved 'classic', Metroid Prime Remastered succeeds in making the game feel solidly up-to-date, with detailed, attractive visuals and particularly the implementation of dual analogue controls, which work perfectly. A few niggles remain in the game design, with limited save points leading to occasional frustrating sequences (though the sense of tension that comes with this is undeniable) and a late-game artifact hunt dropping the pace. However, these can't detract much from an overall excellent, highly-polished package, which effectively transitions the engaging Metroid gameplay formula to 3D. Also notable is the well-developed lore that permeates the game, with the 'scan visor' used heavily in both puzzle-solving and analysis of environmental features and creatures, alongside retrieval of log entries that flesh out the world and its history.

18. Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive) | 9 March 2023 | 6/10
Completed with all six chaos emeralds, played via Sega Mega Drive Classics. What stands out about the first Sonic the Hedgehog is the speed of gameplay (inevitably!) and the sheer size and complexity of its levels. With a good number of different paths through each 'act', and hidden secrets, there's a rewarding sense of exploration, albeit this is somewhat fleeting with little meaningful reward. While technically impressive, on balance the speed can be a bit of a detriment to enjoyment, as it's easy to make mistakes, especially with quite twitchy controls - and these are soundly punished. Still, I'm glad finally to have made time for a complete playthrough, especially with emulation functionality to mitigate the moments of frustration when they do happen.

19. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive) | 10 March 2023 | 7/10
Completed with all seven chaos emeralds, played via Sega Mega Drive Classics. A decent development from the first game, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has some excellent level design early on, well suited to the fast speed on which its concept is predicated, making good use of the expansive size of each level. However, that unfortunately tails off somewhat as the game progresses, particularly with the over-use of instant-death pits, so again I'd definitely recommend emulation with save states and/or rewind as the optimal way to experience this retro mainstay.

20. Halo 3 (Xbox Series X) | 13 March 2023 | 7/10
Campaign completed on normal difficulty. Deservedly a classic, Halo 3 impresses with an expansive single-player campaign in an iconic setting. However, played from a modern perspective and without much of a sense of nostalgia, it didn't hold up quite as well as I'd hoped, clearly showing its age in some quite 'janky' gameplay mechanics, particularly when it comes to vehicle-based outdoor sequences. Regardless, it's still an enjoyable experience all told, with solid gunplay across a good range of sci-fi weaponry and some memorable 'setpiece' sequences.

21. Halo 3: ODST (Xbox Series X) | 17 March 2023 | 7/10
Campaign completed on normal difficulty. I was surprised quite how different an experience Halo 3: ODST was from the game that spawned it, taking us away from Master Chief and placing the player in the role on an eponymous special forces Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. Without the benefit of regenerating shields, there's a much greater sense of vulnerability and while there's certainly the opportunity to project your own power through the same varied array of weaponry, at times a more stealthy approach is beneficial. An enjoyable story builds on the camaraderie between the a small squad and adds meaningfully to the overall lore of the *Halo* universe.

22. Ristar (Mega Drive) | 19 March 2023 | 7/10
Complete playthrough on hard difficulty, including all bonus stages completed. While I wouldn't say that I *loved* Ristar, it's undeniably impressive in a number of ways. A lesser-known 2D mascot platformer, it has some quite unusual mechanics, with the protagonist, an anthropomorphised star, using his extensible arms to help with navigating stages and basic combat through a grab move. Bright, vibrantly-coloured graphics across a range of creatively-designed environments are consistently attractive, and the levels themselves are each quite expansive in both dimensions. Sadly, some frustrations in controls hold the game back from true greatness, particularly so in the later stages and bosses - but at least with the benefits of emulation, those can be someone alleviated.

23. Halo: Reach (Xbox Series X) | 22 March 2023 | 9/10
Campaign completed on normal difficulty. I can't say that I have much investment in Halo lore, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the epic story of the fall of planet Reach to be thoroughly engrossing, following a small squad of Spartan supersoldiers in a desperate defence against impossible odds. Technically, Halo Reach holds up impressively well in a modern context, definitely a step up from Halo 3 and ODST, while the combat encounters themselves are consistently well-designed, encouraging a tactical approach, with plenty of variety.

24. Halo 4 (Xbox Series X) | 28 March 2023 | 8/10
Campaign completed on normal difficulty. A solid entry in the Halo series that I enjoyed despite seemingly a relatively poor reputation, Halo 4 certainly feels the most modern of the games in The Master Chief Collection, nicely polished throughout and with very lengthy missions (for better or worse, depending on your preference!) of impressive scope. The core story isn't particularly memorable, but the plight of Cortana and the ongoing relationship between her and the Master Chief works well to support this, lending a sense of emotion events. The introduction of the Prometheans as a major opposing faction changes up the cadence of many encounters significantly, especially when three-way fights break out, and also brings with it an interesting new set of weaponry.

25. Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox Series X) | 8 April 2023 | 7/10
Campaign completed on normal difficulty with 100% of intel collected. As the first true Xbox One game in the franchise, Halo 5 is a solid enough first-person shooter with suitably large scope to many of its levels and enhanced graphical polish, alongside the same impactful gunplay that's now well-developed. Clearly the campaign design is increasingly built around the potential for co-op gameplay, taking place with entirely squad-based encounters; it's nice to see, though, that a 'revive' ability now works (in both directions) with AI allies, though the apparent increased in survivability felt like it was somewhat offset by less damage resistance overall.

Sadly, the story underlying the game's events doesn't feel overly memorable; while it's still focused on Master Chief (and Cortana), with over half of the playtime spent controlling another Spartan, new to the franchise, it's hard to get as invested in events - and I can see why Halo 5 gets a fair bit of fan 'hate' as a result. From the perspective of someone without much sense of investment in the series, this wasn't too much of a detriment to my experience with Halo 5 and I still enjoyed my time with the game on the whole.

26. Supraland Six Inches Under (PC - Steam) | 11 April 2023 | 9/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked, 100% in-game completion. Six Inches Under is an excellent development on the compelling Supraland formula, deserving of the "Supraland 1.5" nickname that it's earned in some quarters. An unashamedly gamified combination of Metroid's exploration and upgrades, Portal's puzzle focus and intuitive 3D platforming (in first-person, which is an achievement in itself!), Six Inches Under moves its setting underground (...mostly, but let's avoid getting spoilery!) and becomes somewhat more linear, with a series of themed areas that, while still inherently interconnected, mostly function as self-contained for at least the initial critical path.

With some wonderfully creative and satisfying-to-use new upgrades, puzzle-solving is right at the game's heart, now with enhanced verticality which nicely mixes up the gameplay, enhancing all three of it its primary aspects. Of course, it's almost impossible for a puzzle game to tune the puzzle difficulty perfectly for every player so there were a few moments of frustration, but in the worst case there are plenty of guides out there to help, and with a sense of fun and humour running through the whole game, the enduring feeling can't help but come back to one of pure enjoyment.

27. Halo Infinite (Xbox Series X) | 24 April 2023 | 9/10
Campaign completed on normal difficulty, 100% in-game completion. Open-world gameplay is a great fit for the Halo franchise, where the most enjoyable scenarios are typically those taking place in a large-scale battlefield - and Halo Infinite pulls off the transition with aplomb. With a plot that inevitably sees the Master Chief battling seemingly impossible odds, in the face of a wholesale defeat of the UNSC forces, a new AI taking the place of Cortana (and that is possible to do well) ensures that there's a sense of personality behind the missions and objectives, even if the overall plot doesn't really develop all that interestingly

Of course, the gameplay is core to any good FPS and here Halo Infinite succeeds impressively, with a wide range of interesting weapons from which everyone will find their favourites, and tactical setpiece encounters throughout. The Far Cry-style side content that comes with an open world setting didn't feel as meaningful as it might - so chasing 100% does get a bit repetitive - but if you see it instead as a supplement to the core campaign it does its job decently, lending an essential sense of life to the world. I look forward to more in this style in future!

28. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA) | 1 May 2023 | 6/10
Completed with 100% in-game progress rating, played via Castlevania Advance Collection. Circle of the Moon is a decent first attempt at transitioning the 'Igavania' formula to a handheld format, but with its fair share of frustrations. Relatively short as far as Metroidvanias go, typical playtime with the game will be extended by a punishing difficulty level - unless you're very overleveled, several of the boss encounters will see death coming within maybe 3-4 hits and even standard enemies frequently post a stiff challenge. I'm also not a great fan of Metroidvanias that base progression at least partially around levelling (which often necessitates grinding) and Circle of the Moon further emphasises grinding with very low drop rates for the small set of cards which provide supplemental combat abilities.

Setting these negatives aside, though, the core gameplay is overwise solid enough and the primary ability upgrades focus on satisfying traversal skills, which eventually make the game world quick and enjoyable to explore. I understand that the later GBA releases are a significant step up in quality from Circle of the Moon, so it clearly provided a good base from which to build.

29. Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores (PS5) | 11 May 2023 | 8/10
100% of trophies earned, 100% in-game progress rating, all datapoints collected (aside from one, glitched). Burning Shores is a very solid expansion to Horizon Forbidden West, shifting the gameplay to the flooded ruins of Los Angeles. There are a few new additions here, including a particularly powerful new weapon and a handful of typically excellently-designed new machines (the most notable being designed after a high-leaping frog). The map design makes good use of flying mounts, with the area made up of number of islands, and of course there's the iconic Hollywood sign the features in the game's setpiece final encounter - which is truly spectacular, with amazing scope. An expansion is inevitably not going to have story developments as impactful as the base game, but there's still some nice development of the overall plot - making the (undoubtedly very distant) third game all the more enticing.

30. Elsinore (PC - Steam) | 15 May 2023 | 8/10
All 13 endings reached, including the 2 secret endings. In many ways, Elsinore is incredible, weaving an intelligently-told time-looping story around the setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet. The game sees the player taking control of Ophelia, who, after being killed within a couple of days, find herself waking up again into an ever-repeating loop, doomed to die repeatedly in some manner within at most four days. The task, then, is to explore Elsinore castle from an overhead perspective, interacting with its various inhabitants (via a point-and-click interface) in the hopes of working out what is causing the loop and, eventually, how to break it.

It's an engrossing premise, told with superb writing throughout and the level of detail and nuance available in the character interactions, alongside the huge range of permutations of events, is a highly laudable achievement. There's the occasional nod to actual Shakespearian dialog that's enjoyable to spot, but not overused and the game is perfectly accessible to someone with no knowledge of the source material. Of course, Hamlet is a tragedy, so don't expect happy endings to be in abundance!

It must be said that some extent of repetition is pretty much inherent in the time-loop premise, which can become a bit frustrating when exploring events that take place later in a cycle. A fast-forward control alleviates this to some extent, but a way to accelerate the text-based dialog further would have been appreciated. Just occasionally, the event logic breaks a little - so you might encounter, for example, references to a character who's just died as if they're still alive - but this is rare and honestly, with the complexity that's involved here, this is forgivable. These relatively minor shortcomings aside, Elsinore is among the strongest examples of a timeloop-based game that you could hope to find.

31. Unheard - Voices of Crime (PC - Steam) | 20 May 2023 | 8/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked, DLC case completed. Unheard puts a distinctive spin on the detective genre, tasking the player to solve a series of crimes with the use almost solely of sound. The game is played from an overhead perspective, with 'sound sources' (the voices of the characters in each environment) marked and you can move between rooms to listen to the events within each, with voices dynamically increasing/decreasing in volume and moving in 3D space as you move around them - it's an impressive effect. Taking a cue from immersive theatre, each scenario has events constantly taking place simultaneously, in different locations, and of course that means that not everything can be experienced in a single run. Fortunately, the flow of time can be manipulated at will, with fast-forward, rewind and skip controls to aid in the detective work as you gradually piece together events - first by identifying the names of each individual, then by answering up to three questions that define the crime that you're tasked to solve.

Perhaps worth noting is that the voice-acting quality is a bit of a mixed bag, likely at least in part of being a dub from native Chinese. The game is arguably a bit on the easy side and - at least until the final case or two - the way that your solution can be 'marked' at will makes it very susceptible to brute-forcing - but this didn't particularly detract from an engrossing overall experience; with only five cases, it's over all too quickly!

32. Golden Idol Mysteries: The Spider of Lanka (PC - Steam) | 22 May 2023 | 8/10
Complete playthrough. This first DLC for The Case of the Golden Idol provides three new (prequel) chapters in very much the same style as the base game. Pleasingly, they're all quite challenging, but once again nothing's out of reach with a bit of thought and detective-work. The short length inevitably means that there's less of a wide-ranging web of complexity, but that can't detract from more of the wonderfully satisfying investigation and deduction formula.

33. Strangeland (PC - Steam) | 2 June 2023 | 6/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Well, I've finally managed to find a Wadjet Eye that I didn't particularly enjoy. In fairness, much of that is down to the setting and aesthetic - Strangeland is point-and-click puzzle adventure in a psychological horror form, which really isn't appealing to me, but the Wadjet Eye pedigree drew me to try the game regardless. More objectively, there's not really much to the story here and taking place across a relatively small number of areas, the puzzles are mostly quite simple. I can't, however, fault the game on its dedication to the horror genre - the pixelart graphics are as painstakingly detailed as ever and (optional) commentary and explanatory text call out frequent points of fine detail in the setting and dialogue that I'm sure would be entirely overlooked by many, while still working effectively to craft a convincingly coherent, if fantastical world.

34. Planet of Lana (Xbox Series X (Game Pass)) | 7 June 2023 | 7/10
Complete playthrough with all secret shrines located. The obvious takeaway from Planet of Lana is that it's graphically stunning, with a vibrant, hand-painted art style that really pops, while also being impressively functional in highlighting key area - crucial long grass that provides a place of safety is immediately obvious for example. Its gameplay is a relatively straightforward puzzle-platformer, never overly taxing but still satisfying to progress through, while gradually building an emotional bond between the protagonist and a small animal companion that's crucial to much of the puzzle-solving. Levels are all very well-paced, never too lengthy and introducing new mechanics at a sensible pace - just enough to keep things interesting without too steep of a difficulty curve. Ultimately the game isn't doing anything particularly new - but what it does, it does well.

35. NUTS (PC - Steam) | 13 June 2023 | 6/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. While photography-based games are becoming something of an expanding niche, NUTS's premise as a "squirrel surveillance" game is still an intriguing one. The game tasks the player with tracking squirrels' night-time movements across a series of forest areas with strategically-placed cameras, with an environmentalist story providing some narrative drive. While fairly simple, this mechanic works pretty well, with a couple of minor twists - though the later scenarios (there are six) do start to show its limits, as with their longer length the downtime between placing cameras (via first-person exploration), watching back the recorded footage, repositioning and repeating becomes evident - the traipse to and from the caravan observation point becomes increasingly tedious, adding little to the gameplay (though the inclusion of "walking simulator" in the game's official description does, I suppose, give fair warning of this). Overall, NUTS is decent while it lasts (somewhere around 3 hours), but I can't see it sustaining an experience that's much longer than that.

36. Wolfenstein 3D (PC - Steam via LZWolf) | 4 July 2023 | 7/10
Complete playthrough (all six episodes). Absolutely deserving of its classic status, Wolfenstein 3D remains enjoyably playable to this day, especially with the help of well-implemented modern Source ports. The quality of the episodes is quite variable - episodes 1, 3 and 5 being the most enjoyable and tightly-designed, while episode 4 is particular gets a bit too labyrinthine and 6 has the occasional map layout that's clearly designed to ensure death unless you're very lucky; I'm also not a fan of the approach to secrets that just requires 'using' every inch of wall space until you happen to run into the right on. These can't, however, detract too much from the simplistic compelling Nazi-blasting action - just don't forget the quicksave and automap!

37. Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny (PC - Steam via LZWolf) | 14 July 2023 | 6/10
Complete playthrough (all three mission packs). Wolfenstein 3D, but moreso, this standalone expansion follows much the same formula with few additions (one new enemy type is about all), but levels are typically much larger. While this might be seen as a positive in being more content, most are quite labyrinthine, to the point that it detracts from the experience - especially as mission pack 2 onwards features a lot of levels with mandatory routes hidden in 'secret' walls. With little indication of where these are - there's no graphical difference, just occasional aspects of the level design might suggest their presence - finding them becomes largely guesswork, which just isn't much fun. Regardless, the enjoyable core of the game is still present so, while there's little depth to the gameplay, Spear of Destiny is a decent enough experience all told.

38. Assemble With Care (PC - Steam) | 28 July 2023 | 7/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. The mobile roots are clear, but the PC version of Assemble With Care is a decent, polished translation of the touch-based interface. The primary mechanic of disassembling, fixing and then reassembling various objects/devices is satisfying, though with only limited options the depth here is limited - making the short length appropriate. A lightweight story helps to tie together the various chapters - enjoyable enough but again lacking any real complexity.

39. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch) | 21 August 2023 | 9/10
Completed with all shrines beaten and all lightroots located. There's little that I can say that's not been said plenty of time before, but Tears of the Kingdom is a triumphant sequel to Breath of the Wild. Once again we have a suitably epic story to provide impetus for the gameplay, spanning the history of Hyrule, and with some unusually heart-wrenching moments. The game map is tweaked just enough to feel fresh alongside introducing a novel set of new puzzle-solving mechanics, and the introduction of additional 'layers' with the underground depths and the skies above adds a great deal to the exploration - even if that sometimes brings a bit of frustration. Throughout, the way that miniature puzzles are woven into the world is inspired and the sheer quantity (and quality!) of detail that's packed in means that there's rarely a time that you'll not find something of interest as you explore.

Of course, no game is perfect and I'm in the camp that's not a fan of the weapon durability mechanic, which mostly leads to frustration, even if I understand the intention behind it. The major 'temple' locations are a significant improvement over Breath of the Wild's Divine Beasts, but I still mourn the absence of the fully-fledged puzzle-based dungeons that always were a series staple. These do detract from the overall experience a little, but not enough to prevent it almost certainly being one of the strongest releases of a pretty packed year.

40. Star Trek: Resurgence (Xbox Series X) | 27 August 2023 | 7/10
Complete playthrough. Played after the first major patch, Star Trek Resurgence no longer suffers from the significant technical issues that seemed to be prevalent shortly after release. What remains is an enjoyable extended traditional Trek episode in the post-The Next Generation era, with an engaging story that switches between two protagonists. The degree of interactivity varies - in many cases just dialogue selection, but with a few 'minigame' segments based around shuttlecraft flight, stealth or phaser combat (for example). These work on a basic level, but, not being a major focus of the game, don't really excel and come off as a bit clunky. Again, though, the story is what players will come to the game for and on that measure, Resurgence stands as one of the better games set in the Trek universe.

41. Later Alligator (PC - Steam) | 28 August 2023 | 7/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked, all puzzle pieces and family badges collected. Lightweight but enjoyable, Later Alligator's core gameplay comprises a series of mini-game challenges set by members of an alligator family inhabiting a fictional city, explored through a point-and-click interface is a point-and-click puzzle game. Entertaining though these can be, the game's strength lies in its excellent writing, laced with humour throughout, which carries the game through its fairly short (somewhere around a couple of hours) length.

42. Golden Idol Mysteries: The Lemurian Vampire (PC - Steam) | 5 September 2023 | 8/10
Complete playthrough. A very solid send-off for the best detective game in a long while, The Lemurian Vampire brings three new, fairly complex scenarios that are once again thoroughly satisfying to solve. A few new mechanics add novelty to the gameplay, now with each chapter taking place over multiple points in time, alongside a quality-of-life improvement that carries "known information" between chapters. It's a shame that this is the final DLC for the game as I'd take as much as I can get of these scenarios, but I eagerly await whatever Color Gray Games come up with next.

43. Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery (PC - Steam) | 11 September 2023 | 6/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked, including DLC. Nicely artistic but very limited in gameplay, Behind the Canvas is a point-and-click puzzle game based around interactions with objects in a painter's studio. Those puzzles are largely just based around pattern/colour recognition so there's little here by way of challenge - the hardest that it gets is locating the hotspots in the environment - and honestly I didn't find the game all that interesting. That said, it's clearly not designed with any great ambitions and as a relaxing, somewhat relaxing interactive story is decent enough.

44. Sea of Stars (PS5 (PS Plus)) | 14 October 2023 | 9/10
Platinum trophy earned. Sea of Stars is a gorgeous, stylish and satisfying tribute to RPG classics in the vein of Chrono Trigger, succeeding handsomely against that lofty aim. Its incredible pixelart immediately draws the eye, but beyond the surface level there's a well-developed world to explore, with an enjoyable story told through expressive characters who you can't help but come to love. Gameplay is relatively simple, based around turn-based battles with a typical resistance/vulnerability mechanic, but particularly enhanced by a novel approach to breaking enemy attacks through appropriate combinations of elemental effects. There's a certain satisfaction to be gleaned from devising attack patterns to meet seemingly intractable requirements, even if this never gets overly complex and, for example, there's a lack of any real buffs system that could greatly expand the tactical possibilities. I didn't really catch any of the references to Sabotage Studio's previous game, The Messenger, though I know that they're in there, and this is a second hit from them in my eyes.

45. COCOON (Xbox Series X (Game Pass)) | 21 October 2023 | 8/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). Cocoon is a very impressive debut for Geometric Interactive, clearly inspired by Limbo and Inside (on which the studio's founders also worked), but now in a wholly puzzle-focused 3D setting. Taking place with a complete absence of explicit tutorial, the game nonetheless feels immediately intuitive, even with its novel core mechanic of multiple distinct worlds that the protagonist creature can dive into and out of, and carry about as spheres within other worlds to navigate through a detailed, eerie alien landscape. It's perhaps a little too straightforward at times, with many puzzles being overcome from trying to first approach that presents itself, but there are still a good number of somewhat mind-bending scenarios, especially in the latter parts of the game where juggling multiple worlds becomes commonplace. Art design is fantastic throughout, perhaps as expected given the studio founders' experience from Limbo and Inside, with a pervading otherworldliness and scenery that tells a story all by itself - and the game's ultimate ending wraps up the experience in (no spoilers) as satisfying a thematic manner as could be hoped.

46. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) | 6 November 2023 | 9/10
100% complete, 6/6 medals earned. Super Mario Bros. Wonder has a strong claim to being amongst the most creative and pure fun 2D Mario platformers, managing to shake up the standard formula significantly with the introduction of "Wonder flowers" into each stage, which transform the environment in any number of unexpected, often quite spectacular ways. To give just a couple of examples, a fossil might come alive as flying dragon, or the perspective might suddenly flip to a top-down perspective. These transformations are almost invariably great fun, and a very welcome addition. Beyond this standout addition, levels are impressively varied in design and satisfying to play through, often with interesting ways to hide the three collectible coins that each contains, and there's a wonderful (pun intended?) sense of personality throughout, especially with flowers that talk to Mario with brief quips as he passes them.

I can't help but feel that the power-ups weren't used quite as well as they might have been here, but those that are present are solid enough, with a handful of newly-introduced variations (the elephant flower being the source of many of the promotional images). Similarly, a badge system that provides a selectable ability through which to play through each level doesn't feel like it's taken to its full potential - perhaps some of these might have worked better as additional power-ups? Regardless, though these are only minor niggles in an excellent game.

A now-traditional Special World closes out the game, ramping up the challenge significantly, and there's certainly some great satisfaction to come from besting these final challenges - but do yourself a favour and if you attempt the final couple of gauntlets, do them with Yoshi and save yourself a lot of frustration!

47. Bad End Theater (PC - Steam) | 10 November 2023 | 7/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. Bad End Theater is a short, enjoyable puzzle-based visual novel, where the player takes control of one of four characters who then play through a short sequence based around a fantasy hero/demon conflict. Gameplay takes the form of several text-based choices, which ultimately lead to one of the titular bad end(ing)s. The novel twist comes from the four characters each taking part in a given run, and once you've experienced a given choice as one character, you can set then behaviour that they follow before starting a run with a different character - and thereby experience a different path through the decision tree of outcomes. It's a neat mechanic that works well, especially as you gradually find different paths and then different decision points. Despite the inevitably bleak outcomes, it all plays out with a sense of fun - and maybe there's a 'true ending' in there somewhere? The lack of long-term depth limits the game's overall potential, but it's fun while it lasts.

48. Tchia (PS5 (PS Plus)) | 12 November 2023 | 6/10
Complete playthrough. A beautiful tribute to New Caledonia and its culture, Tchia sadly didn't particularly 'click' with me. There's a decent supernatural story to play through and some emotional story encounters, but the core open-world gameplay overall just felt rather dull. Even making use of the possession mechanics, it takes far too long to travel from place to place, with little of note to find between points of interest. I understand the reasoning behind not including a precise location on the in-game map, being to encourage exploration, but in practice this just leads to a more frustrating experience than necessary - there are other, better ways to achieve this (look at the recent Zelda games, as an easy example) - and led to this being a relatively rare example of a game that I won't be trying to 100% for a reason other than difficulty. There's still a decent game here that I'm sure plenty will enjoy, it's just a bit disappointing to me having heard positive things about it before playing.

49. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (PS5) | 16 November 2023 | 8/10
Campaign completed on Regular difficulty. The original Modern Warfare cast really can't be beaten when it comes to Call of Duty campaigns, this was a blast. The story, while nothing particularly deep, feels meaningful through the character relationships that it develops, and there's impressive mission variety with memorable setpieces and even some well-judged stealth sequences.

50. Adios (Xbox One) | 17 November 2023 | 6/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). Very limited on "gameplay", but this story of a pig farmer ending his connection with the mob is an interesting, deeply personal tale of remorse. This takes the form of a day in which the player undertakes chores around his farm, accompanied by the mob hitman - who while a close friend, ultimately has been sent to kill him. The writing and voice acting is excellent, serving the sell the concept very effectively - and while it's not a game that I'd soon replay, it's been a worthwhile experience.

51. SCP: Secret Files (PC - Steam) | 20 November 2023 | 6/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. An interesting concept, SCP: Secret Files comprises a series of relatively short sequences, each completely distinct in style, exploring the behaviour of a supernatural phenomenon. The core of the game really is in the stories that it tells, though there's somewhat more to it than a "walking simulator" - and in those stories it finds a good balance of exposition and mystery, leaning somewhat into a horror angle at times. The gameplay is admittedly a bit clunky which means that it's not as satisfying an overall experience as it might have been, but still a worthwhile experience. I gather that the game is just a taste of a much wider 'lore' and while I'm not immediately compelled to seek that out, it's certainly a possibility in future...

52. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PS4) | 29 November 2023 | 6/10
Campaign completed on Regular difficulty with 100% of collectibles. With Black Ops III, Call of Duty takes its campaign in a heavily multiplayer-focused direction - and unfortunately, while I'm probably in the minority, this really isn't what I come to the series for. In place of 'epic' setpieces, the majority of encounters feel more focused on the sheer weight of enemy numbers, losing some of the more interesting level design. With the player character simply called "Player" in-game, this also makes the plot significantly less relatable and engaging, lacking the personal back-and-forth and camaraderie that suffuses the Modern Warfare subseries. The core gunplay is solid enough, of course, though the inability (by design) to pick up most enemy weapons leads to less experimentation. A cybernetical abilities (which might as well be a magic system) offsets this somewhat, though to be honest I never found all that much need to use it, especially later in the game where there's little in the level design to remind you to use these abilities. Finally, the division of campaign progress between online and local instances is another cause of frustration - while you're pushed towards playing online by default, an online session can't sustain itself between different times of play, which doesn't play well with modern implementations of Rest Mode and Quick Resume, as well as not being altogether stable in normal play.

53. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (PS5) | 13 December 2023 | 8/10
Campaign completed on Regular difficulty. A *big* improvement on Black Ops II, Cold War returns the game's setting to the early 1980s, nailing the feeling of Cold War espionage with a really fun, if short, campaign. With a set of well-realised characters - some returning from Black Ops 1 and 2 - we also see the introduction of branching choices with a modest impact on the overall direction of the story for some added interest. The questionable choices from Black Ops III around multiplayer focus and limited in-mission gun variety are pleasingly walked back here, leaving a campaign that, while hardly innovative, is a blast to play through. Technical performance as a first native PS5 CoD game is also excellent, with some stunning visuals on offer.

54. Mirror's Edge: Catalyst (PS4) | 23 December 2023 | 8/10
Complete playthrough. Mirror's Edge: Catalyst has reminded me quite how fun free-running can be in gaming; while I can't claim to be the greatest at it; this has reawakened a desire to play more. Catalyst builds nicely on the original game, shifting to a well-realised open-world setting that still manages to have numerous well-crafted running routes - and while to my mind many of the optional runs that are generously scattered throughout the rooftops are a bit *too* demanding on their time limits, it's undeniably satisfying to master a run.

A red highlight to a suggested run path is generally effective in signposting where to go, though not always - and there were more than a handful of times throughout my playthrough that the flow of a run was interrupted by lack of clear navigation. However, when you know where you're going, free-running controls work pretty much perfectly Conversely, combat sequences are one of the game's weaker areas, with unskippable arenas used a bit too much; fortunately, there were only a couple of times that these proved a significant obstacle in the story, where I hadn't given much priority to the combat skill tree.

There's a decent story here and some enjoyable character dynamics, even if its fairly short length doesn't allow for these to be developed all that far. Finally, the game gets a full +1 to its score from featuring the *second* greatest licenced theme in all of gaming.

Baybob · Jan 1, 2023

Bosh · Jan 1, 2023

Wozzer · Jan 1, 2023

52. Walkabout Mini Golf (Quest2) ★★★★★ [100hrs]

51. Kiwi Clicker (PC) ★★★☆☆ [10hrs]

50. WoW: Season of Discovery Phase 1 (PC) ★★★★☆ [100hrs]

49. Unsighted (PC) ★★★☆☆ [9hrs]

48. Mario Party Superstars (Switch) ★★★☆☆ [10hrs]

47. Teamfight Tactics: Season 9 (PC) ★★★★☆ [100+hrs]

46. GW2: The Dragon's Reach: Part 1 (PC) ★★★☆☆ [7hrs]

45. Escape from Tarkov: 0.13.5 (PC) ★★★★★ [200hrs]

44. Cube Escape: Paradox (PC) ★☆☆☆☆ [4hrs]

43. GW2: Entanglement (PC) ★★☆☆☆ [7hrs]

42. Cell to Singularity (PC) ★★☆☆☆ [100hrs]

41. GW2: Gates of Maguuma (PC) ★★★☆☆ [5hrs]

40. GW2: Battle for Lion's Arch (PC) ★★★☆☆ [7hrs]

39. Assassin's Creed Unity (PC) ★★★★☆ [35hrs]

38. GW2: The Tower of Nightmares (PC) ★★★☆☆ [6hrs]

37. Brawl Stars: Season 19 (Android) ★★★☆☆ [50+hrs]

36. GW2: Clockwork Chaos (PC) ★★☆☆☆ [4hrs]

35. Assassin's Creed Rogue (XSX) ★★☆☆☆ [11hrs]

34. Celeste (PC) [8hrs]

33. GW2: Sky Pirates (PC) ★★☆☆☆ [3hrs]

32. Baba Is You (PC) ★★★☆☆ [10hrs]

31. Cookie Clicker (PC) ★★★★☆ [200hrs]

30. GW2: Flame and Frost (PC) ★★☆☆☆ [6hrs]

29. Yakuza: Like A Dragon (PC) ★★★★★ [30hrs]

28. Fall Guys: Season 4 - Fame 3 (PC) ★★★★☆ [100hrs]

27. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (PC) ★★★☆☆ [17.8hrs]

26. Melvor Idle (PC) ★★★★☆ [100hrs]

25. Guild Wars 2 (PC) ★★★☆☆ [97hrs]

24. Fall Guys: Season 4 - Fame 2 (PC) ★★★★★ [100+hrs]

23. Diablo IV (PC) ★★★★★ [70hrs]

22. Black Desert Online: Summer 2023 (PC) ★★★☆☆ [40hrs]

21. Fall Guys: Season 3 (XSX) ★★★★☆ [100hrs]

20. Black Desert Online: Spring 2023 (PC) ★★★☆☆ [20hrs]

19. Ready or Not (PC) ★★★☆☆ [13.3hrs]

18. Planet of Lana (XSX) ★★★☆☆ [4hrs]

17. Escape from Tarkov: 0.13 (PC) ★★★★★ [200hrs]

16. Detroit: Become Human (PS5) ★★★☆☆ [12hrs]

15. Unheard - Voices of Crime (PC) ★★★☆☆ [4hrs]

14. Minecraft (XSX) ★★★★☆ [200hrs]

13. Super Mario Bros. (SNES) ★★☆☆☆ [6hrs]

12. WoW: Embers of Neltharion (PC) ★★★☆☆ [40hrs]

11. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (PC) ★★★★★ [30hrs]

10. World of Warcraft: Dragonflight (PC) ★★★★☆ [100hrs]

9. Destiny 2: Lightfall (PC) ★★☆☆☆ [7.5hrs]

8. Pentiment (PC) ★★★☆☆ [17.1hrs]

7. The Last of Us Part I (PS5) ★★★★★ [13hrs]

6. Yakuza 5 (PC) ★★★★☆ [92hrs]

5. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (PC) ★★☆☆☆ [15hrs]

4. The Last of Us: Left Behind (PS5) ★★★★★ [3hrs]

3. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (XSX) ★★★☆☆ [13hrs]

2. Genshin Impact (PC) ★★★★☆ [45hrs]

1. Stray (PS5) ★★★☆☆ [7hrs]

el_galvon · Jan 1, 2023

Let's go!

01. Stray (PC - 2022) | Jan/04 - 7hrs | 8.5/10

Stray is an adventure game where you control a cat in a post-apocalyptic world. For the most part it's a game about exploring environments, interacting with objects and NPCs, and solving puzzles to move the story foward, but eventually it features some combat and stealth sessions, which both work well in the short time they last. The visual part is excellent, the game uses colors and lighting very well even in decadent scenarios, and the cat's animations are very well done, also there is a good variety of environments presented. The soundtrack accompanies the overall high quality of the game, working well with the narrative. Controlling the cat in this world, despite seeming somewhat restricted initially, soon proves to be very functional for everything the game proposes. Stray is a very well resolved game, where it seems that the ambitions and resources of the developers align very well, resulting in a very pleasant experience from beginning to end, I imagine it is a good game even to present to those who are not so familiar with video games.

02. The Case of the Golden Idol (PC - 2022) | Jan/07 - 6hrs | 9/10

An excellent investigative game, one of those that make the difficult task of making the player really feel like solving a mystery. Through 12 different cases, which all belong to the same story, the game asks for the analysis of a 2D scenario "frozen" in time. Investigating the people and objects that make up this scenario, it is necessary to collect names and verbs, with the aim of filling in the gaps of a text that will describe exactly what happened there. Between the beginning of each case and the presentation of the solution filling that text, most of The Case of the Golden Idol takes place in the player's head: reading texts, observing the position of different objects, identifying each person in that place and, most important, the relationship between them. The evolution of complexity between each case is applied in a very interesting way, because the game requires total understanding of the events of each previous chapter to better analyze the next one. And this progress goes up to the fantastic final chapter, which is the most demanding but also manages to be very rewarding when presenting the conclusion of the entire plot. The game's art may not please everyone, but I particularly find it quite charming, as well as the soundtrack, often distorted to cause a certain discomfort while you're investigating a murder. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to play with your inner Sherlock.

03. The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe (PC - 2022) | Jan/15 - 7hrs | 7.5/10

I think The Stanley Parable (2013) is fascinating and, for those who never played the original, this version is very worthwhile, since practically all the old content is replicated here. I was pleasantly surprised by the quantity and quality of what was added to this "Ultra Deluxe" but, even with some brilliantly funny moments, the impact of what is done here is not the same as what the original did ten years ago, playing with the design of narrative choices in games. That said, the narrator's (Kevan Brighting) performance is of such a high level in this new content that Ultra Deluxe is a must for those who enjoyed him in the original.

04. Neon White (PC - 2022) | Jan/15 - 12hrs | 8.5/10

One of the most interesting first-person shooter games I've ever played.

Neon White is a game divided into levels, where in each of them your character starts with just a sword. You have to collect weapons, in form of cards, throughout the scenario, while trying to finish the stage as quickly as possible.

The interesting part here is the possibility of sacrificing a weapon card to use some skill: an extra jump, a dash, a grenade that can propel you to a higher platform... and this strategy of finding the most effective way to finish each level is where the fun resides.

It's not necessarily a difficult game to finish, even the Gold ranking is quite possible in most stages after a few tries, but it's clear the focus here is on improving more and more each time obtained. It's even possible to get hints on alternative paths, and this full understanding of a level's layout and all the different ways you can navigate through it is very rewarding.

Its worse parts is undoubtedly its generic story and its somewhat... questionable dialogues. Fortunately, these things are pretty easy to ignore, and it doesn't take a lot of context to understand what's going on in that world.

Because all that really matters in Neon White is how much time it takes to get the next maximum rank (or beat your friend's time).

doops. · Jan 1, 2023

Completed (52/52):

January
1. Mega Man Legacy Collection / CAPCOM | PC | 3/1/23 | 6.5/10
2. Dead Island Definitive Edition / Techland/Deep Silver | PC | 8/1/23 | 6/10
3. Dead Island Riptide - Definitive Edition / Techland/Deep Silver | PC | 9/1/23 | 6/10
4. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Game of the Year Edition / Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks | PC | 12/1/23 | 7/10
5. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition / Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks | PC | 20/1/23 | 8/10
6. Fallout 4 - Game of the Year Edition / Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks | PC | 27/1/23 | 8/10
7. Dead Space / Motive Studio/Electronic Arts | PC | 30/1/23 | 8/10

February
8. Hi-Fi RUSH / Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks | PC | 04/2/23 | 10/10
9. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice / Ninja Theory/Ninja Theory | PC | 09/2/23 | 7/10
10. The Forgotten City / Modern Storyteller/Dear Villagers | PC | 10/2/23 | 9/10
11. Shadow Warrior / Flying Wild Hog/Devolver Digital | PC | 11/2/23 | 7.5/10
12. Shadow Warrior 2 / Flying Wild Hog/Devolver Digital | PC | 12/2/23 | 6/10
13. Shadow Warrior 3 / Flying Wild Hog/Devolver Digital | PC | 13/2/23 | 4/10
14. The Order: 1886 / Ready at Dawn/Sony Interactive Entertainment | PS4 | 15/2/23 | 7/10
15. L.A. Noire / Team Bondi/Rockstar Games | PS4 | 19/2/23 | 9/10
16. Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition / Raccoon Logic/505 Games | PS5 | 20/2/23 | 6/10
17. Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories / Granzella Inc./NIS America | PS4 | 23/2/23 | 6.5/10
18. Catherine: Full Body / Atlus/SEGA | PS4 | 25/2/23 | 4/10

March
19. Forspoken / Luminous Productions/Square Enix | PS5 | 03/3/23 | 6/10
20. Life is Strange: Remastered / Dontnod/Square Enix | PS4 | 03/3/23 | 7.5/10
21. Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered / Deck Nine/Square Enix | PS4 | 09/3/23 | 7.5/10
22. Life is Strange: True Colors / Deck Nine/Square Enix | PS5 | 11/3/2023 | 7/10
23. No More Heroes / Grasshopper Manufacture/Marvelous | PC | 13/3/2023 | 8/10
24. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle / Grasshopper Manufacture/Marvelous | PC | 14/3/2023 | 7/10
25. Travis Strikes Back: No More Heroes - Complete Edition / Grasshopper Manufacture/Marvelous | PS4 | 15/3/2023 | 5/10
26. No More Heroes 3 / Grasshopper Manufacture/Marvelous | PC | 20/3/2023 | 8/10
27. Resident Evil 4 (2023) / CAPCOM/CAPCOM | PC | 26/3/2023 | 10/10

April
28. Sackboy: A Big Adventure / Sumo Digital/Sony Interactive Entertainment | PS5 | 07/04/2023 | 7/10
29. Horizon Forbidden West / Guerilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment | PS5 | 11/04/2023 | 9/10
30. Demon's Souls / Bluepoint Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment | PS5 | 16/04/2023 | 9/10
31. Dead Island 2 / Dambuster Studios/Deep Silver | PS5 | 25/04/2023 | 8/10
32. The Sinking City / Frogwares/Frogwares | PS5 | 28/04/2023 | 5/10

May
33. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments / Frogwares/Frogwares | PS4 | 07/05/2023 | 7/10
34. Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter / Frogwares/Frogwares | PS4 | 08/05/2023 | 6/10
35. Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One / Frogwares/Frogwares | PS5 | 09/05/2023 | 4/10
36. The Longest Journey / Funcom/Funcom | PC | 17/05/2023 | 9/10
37. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey / Funcom/Funcom | PC | 22/05/2023 | 7.5/10
38. Dreamfall Chapters: The Final Cut / Red Thread Games/Red Thread Games | PC | 23/05/2023 | 8.5/10
39. Among the Sleep: Enhanced Edition / Krillbite Games/Krillbite Games | PC | 27/03/2023 | 4/10
40. / Rain Games/Modus Games Teslagrad: Remastered | PS5 | 28/03/2023 | 7.5/10
41. / Rain Games/Modus Games Teslagrad 2 | PS5 | 29/03/2023 | 8/10

June
42. Sniper Elite V2 Remastered / Rebellion Developments/Rebellion Developments | PC | 01/06/2023 | 5/10
43. Sniper Elite III / Rebellion Developments/Rebellion Developments| PC | 05/06/2023 | 6/10
44. Sniper Elite 4 / Rebellion Developments/Rebellion Developments| PC | 05/06/2023 | 8/10
45. Sniper Elite 5 / Rebellion Developments/Rebellion Developments| PC | 05/06/2023 | 7.5/10
46. Alan Wake Remastered / Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing | PS5 | 10/06/2023 | 6.5/10
47. Alan Wake's American Nightmare / Remedy Entertainment/Remedy Entertainment | PC | 11/06/2023 | 5.5/10
48. Sonic Origins / Sonic Team/SEGA | PC | 27/06/2023 | 6/10
49. Sonic Mania / Christian Whitehead/SEGA | PC | 28/06/2023 | 10/10
50. Fallout 76 / Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks | PC | 30/06/2023 | 7.5/10

July
51. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective / CAPCOM/CAPCOM | PC | 03/07/2023 | 9/10
52. Return of the Obra Dinn / Lucas Pope/3909 | PC | 04/07/2023 | 8.5/10

(Follow me on Backloggd for full reviews of everything I've completed this year!)

NESpowerhouse · Jan 1, 2023

Reserved

Sillen2000 · Jan 1, 2023

🌟~2023 Main Post!!!~🌟

2020 main post (58 games)
2021 main post (47 games)
2022 main post (53 games)

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (NSW)
Octopath Traveler II (PS5)

9 Years of Shadows (PC)
El Paso, Elsewhere (PC)
Pentiment (PC)
Tell Me Why (PC)
Kurohyou: Like a Dragon New Chapter (PSP)
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One (PS3)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS3)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS4)
Mass Effect (PS4)
Humanity (PS5)
Sea of Stars (PS5)
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
Baten Kaitos (NSW)
Pokémon Scarlet (NSW)

Marvel Ultimate Alliance (PC)
StarTropics (NSO)

Games completed by console
Playstation 2: 1
PSP: 2
Playstation 3: 4
Playstation 4: 11
Playstation 5: 16

Game Boy: 1
Game Boy Advance: 1
Nintendo 3DS: 2
3DS Virtual Console: 1
Nintendo Switch: 12
Nintendo Switch Online: 5

PC: 3

First Playthroughs Vs. Replays
First playthroughs: 47
Replays: 13

Longer reviews/scattered thoughts in the monthly posts!

JANUARY UPDATE

1. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (PC) | 2.5/5 - Surprisingly decent, challenging but still fair (at least on Normal) third-person shooter from a time when they barely were a thing. Pretty good level design throughout the standard levels too, with enough alternate paths and secrets hiddent throughout all of them. Still, not the most inspired little thing, though, and every vehicular level is just the worst.
2. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (PS5) | 3.5/5 - Fun to play and the remaster both makes combat a lot better than in the original and the whole game looks really good for the most part (though with some very PSP animations here and there), but the story is mostly like bad fan fiction. At least Zack and Sephiroth are shown love and care by the writers, and the ending is still amazing. Angeal is worse than Genesis.
3. Return to Monkey Island (Switch) | 4/5 - Maybe too easy for some, but pretty nice difficulty for me at least. Humor is as good as ever, and the art style actually looks really good in motion and gives the game a very unique feel to it. It's certainly not a game that reinvents the wheel and some plot points and characters feel a bit underbaked, but as a whole, RtMI is a beautiful little love letter to the series and a fantastic ending to it if that were to be the case.
4. Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (PS4) | 3/5 - It's Yakuza, but Fist of the North star. Certainly feels a bit low budget and the plot doesn't really find what direction to go in until pretty late in the game. There is, however, a lot of fun to be had with the fantastic battle system and the boss fights that're better than most of the main series ones. Lower tier Yakuza game for sure, but one that still amounts to a good time for the most part. Soundtrack goes extremely hard at times as well.
5. Hokuto no Ken (PS4/Sega Mark III) | 2/5 - Not great. Stages are just boring hallways with two different themings and very basic enemy types where you're basically hoping to not take too much damage before reaching the next mini-boss since they have such weird hit boxes that you can never feel safe against them. The actual bosses at the end of every stage are pretty fun and require some trial and error to find out how to damage them, though I'm not sure how anyone would ever beat Souther without a guide.

FEBRUARY UPDATE

6. Hi-Fi Rush (PC) | 3.5/5 - Can't say I get all the masterpiece shouts surrounding Hi-Fi Rush, but still a really good, unique take on the character action genre with its rhythm twist. The incredible animations and charming, very "6th generation updated for 2023", artstyle do a lot of the heavy lifting in making the game as memorable as it is, but it also just happens to have pretty fantastic combat, very well written character interactions and a very good sense of humour. Only thing really letting it down is really poor platforming and some stages that drag on for too long.
7. GOODBYE WORLD (NSW) | 2.5/5 - Really wish I could have loved this more, but it just doesn't come together as a satisfying story in the end. It looks absolutely fantastic, and some lines here and there do struck a chord, but for a game this short, it really has way too many flashbacks to things I've just seen happen in the main story, and the ending just leaves a bad taste. Like, is GOODBYE WORLD sincere in what it's trying to say about the struggles of creating art and questions surrounding why you'd do it and for how long you can keep on trying, or is it, like, a parody of "deep" indie games?
8. Fire Emblem Engage (NSW) | 3.5/5 - Frustrating to play a game like this after Three Houses and its great story and cast. Yeah, the actual strategy RPG gameplay is probably the best I've experienced in the genre for the most part (though I did get a bit tired of the constant reinforcements by the end), and it looks pretty incredible graphically, especially the FMVs which honestly might be the best visuals in any Switch game. It's just that nothing going on in the story works for me. Characters, plot, dialogue; all of them just range betwen average to awful for the most part and drags the whole experience down a bit.
9. Gitaroo Man Lives! (PSP) | 4/5 - Extremely weird, but at its core very much a Parappa-like story of getting over some kind of social anxiety and getting the girl through several music stages, just that the actual plot this time might be even stranger than Parappa. Great, unique gameplay with offensive and defensive phases to the stages that play very distinctly from each other but are both super fun, and the soundtrack is fantastic all the way through with not a miss in sight.
10. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line (PS4) | 4.5/5 - The least story heavy rhythm game of the month, but definitely my favorite. Honestly, just having this much Final Fantasy music in a game makes me happy, but the Theatrhythm games' style of gameplay has always been great, and it translates surprisingly well to a controller. I certainly have some issues with the track selections, like the millions of Battle on the Big Bridge remixes that got in, and some games having less tracks than they should, but it is what it is when you're dealing with a franchise that has so many fantastic compositions.

MARCH UPDATE

11. Ratchet: Gladiator (PS3) | 2.5/5 - Gunplay feels as good as ever and most of the weapons are fun to use, but the game as a whole is just a pretty bland third person shooter with extremely light platforming in environments that all seem to be designed to look as boring as possible, with satirical writing that goes after the easiest target possible. Every vehicular mission is a nightmare.
12. Ultra Street Fighter IV (PS4) | 4/5 - Tried going for a 1cc run on Arcade mode on normal difficulty, which I eventually achieved with Juri. I play fighting games sometimes, but still don't really know the ins and outs well enough to really say why one fighting game works and the other doesn't, but I had a great time pseudo learning a character here! Nice animations, great soundtrack, tight controls are enough to please me, I guess.
13. Resident Evil 4 (2005) (PS4) | 4/5 - It's still Resident Evil 4.

APRIL UPDATE

14. Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS) | 4.5/5 - Pretty fantastic little game and probably the best Kirby I've ever played? Incredible level design and variety, coupled with the Robobot mechanic that shakes things up exactly when needed makes for a good time. Doesn't hurt that the soundtrack is also really good, or that the game is a real looker for being on the 3DS.
15. Stories Untold (PS4) | 3.5/5 - Great atmosphere and very interesting mystery that's built up over several, seemingly unrelated, stories, plus some fairly clever puzzles that are easy enough for me to figure out, but also demand some thinking. Doesn't really stick the landing in a particularly satisfying way, though, and some of the writing can feel pretty stiff.
16. Resident Evil 4 (2023) (PS5) | 4/5 - Yet another great Resident Evil. Not super interesting since it's so similar to the original 4 in structure and even item layout in a lot of places, but still a really good experience that manages to put its own spin on a classic with its slower pace, heavier gunplay and bigger focus on puzzles. The more arcadey gameplay is sort of missed at times, though.
17. Pokémon Stadium (NSW) | 2.5/5 - Only rentals available on Switch, so that's what I used. Playing the game this way does rely on you really knowing the quirks of gen 1, being lucky with the three pokémon the opponent chooses, and not getting screwed over by the extremely harsh RNG. Still, Stadium just oozes personality with its fantastic presentation, and the legendary commentator who I wish would narrate every game.
18. Kirby's Dream Land (NSW) | 2.5/5 - Decent, but playing Kirby's Dream Land in 2023 (and also after having just played Planet Robobot) is to play something that is certainly functional, but just not very interesting. 18 minutes of good looking, good sounding platforming, and absolutely nothing else.
19. Horizon Forbidden West + Burning Shores (PS5) | 4/5 - The story feels incredibly rushed, Aloy takes an eternity to get up after getting knocked down, the climbing feels bad, just to name a few of my many issues with Horizon Forbidden West. Despite all this, I had a great time with it! Mainly thanks to how good the weapons feel, the incredible exploration in a huge, varied and beautiful world that I could just get lost in for hours and still have a good time.

MAY UPDATE

20. Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (NSW) | 4/5 - Certainly feels a lot like DLC in its very short story and almost complete lack of character development, which is a disappointment, but the gameplay refinements from the base game and incredible new compositions are very much appreciated. Lots of small systems to incentivize the player to explore the fairly small, but very dense areas as well, which makes basically everything you do in the world feel like it helps you on your journey in some small way. Possibly also the only good final boss in the entire series?
21. Live A Live (NSW) | 3.5/5 - Fun anthology RPG, though with some weird tonal shifts between bad slapstick comedy and extremely dark plotlines (which are usually handled surprisingly well or such an old Super Famicom game, though), and some of the short stories feel like they were not made with the short format in mind and try to do too much in too little time. Final story is amazing, though, and the new final boss is one of those rare occasions when a rerelease adds something to the story and it actually improves the game by doing so. Game obviously looks fantastic, being in HD-2D, as well, though I really wish there was an option to skip enemies' long attack animations.
22. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PS5) | 3.5/5 - Extremely charming platformer that while it is pretty simple (though stays entertaining for the game's short runtime) from a gameplay perspective is saved by its great, colorful art direction, a hall of famer soundtrack, and a story that manages to somehow be extremely thought provoking at times, and an unbelievably sad ending that is sure to haunt me for a while, that really elevate Klonoa. Really special little gem, even with this remake that loses a lot of charm by not having the original's FMVs and charming blend of 2D sprites and 3D assets.
23. Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139… (PS4) | 4/5 - Not the most interesting game from a gameplay perspective, but the story and music really make Nier a special experience that I can't say I've really had with many other games. Sure, playing through the second half of the game so many times to get each ending is annoying and –hot take, maybe? – endings C and, especially, D lose all of their gravitas by Yoko Taro just introducing concepts from out of nowhere right before they happen to make them work, which feels extremely cheap. But maybe it's more about the journey than the various destinations, I guess, and wow, that journey sure was one that'll be with me for a long time.

JUNE UPDATE

24. Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA) | 3.5/5 - It's good, but, like, Super Metroid was already kind of a remake of Metroid, making Zero Mission kind of feel redundant and just a less interesting Super. Sure, it's nice and short and controls extremely well, but being a pretty faithful remake of NES Metroid for most of its runtime, it feels very basic, and while the QoL changes made from the original are appreciated, they don't really amount to much. The completely new final act is also just pretty boring to play, and seems to be mostly an excuse to sexualize Samus as much as possible.
25. Secret Agent Clank (PSP) | 2/5 - Not very good, I'm afraid. Doesn't feel great to be yet another voice to criticize the franchise's punching bag, but it really is disliked for several very good reasons. The Qwark sections are awful slogs that go on and on, the Ratchet sections should be fun since they're just arena fights, but the weapons lack any sort of punch. Clank sections are decent, pretty similar to ordinary R&C gameplay though with some very basic stealth mechanics here and there. Sadly, they have to share so much screentime with the other two chracters, and also those absurdly long rhythm game that were both very easy and also never seemed to end.
26. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (PS5) | 3/5 - Decent open worlds, very good recreation of the planets from the movies at least, and they house a lot of fun side quests and just overall feel good to be in, though traversal can be a chore sometimes since it's usually so vertical and no character can fly. Stages themselves feel mostly really uninspired (though they get a lot better during the Sequel trilogy, and especially Rise of Skywalker, surprisingly enough), being really short and almost always 99% combat which has never been the lego games' strongest suit. Still, had a good time playing through the whole game in multiplayer, and the character roster is pretty great for a Star Wars fan (even if the UI used for switching characters is awful.)
27. Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty (PS3) | 3/5 - Short and sweet. No filler, not much killer either, but also nothing particularly bad and it's nice to see a Ratchet game with more focus on platforming and surprisingly clever level design than most games after Going Commando There are not original weapons, but the selection is pretty good, and feel like they actually do damage here unlike in Tools of Destruction when almost every late game enemy had both way too much health and also didn't really react to taking damage. Story is dumb, but who cares by this point.
28. Castlevania (PS4) | 3.5/5 - Felt compelled to replay this for some reason, and it is certainly still Castlevania, by which I mean it's a platformer with very deliberately sluggish controls that are meant to teach you not to just go in guns blazing like in, say, a Mega Man game. It's the thinking man's platformer, so to speak, and I really appreciate that and think this is probably the best version of this Classicvania approach outside of Rondo of Blood. Still think Death without triple cross or holy water is close to impossible though, and the final stage is kind of a mess (though I enjoy the Dracula fight).
29. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (NSW) | 5/5 - Think I'll keep this experience to myself for now :), but suffice to say this is GOTY and I can't imagine anything topping it. One of the most impressive games I've ever played, and maybe even my new favorite Zelda game which feels insane to say since I really love Ocarina of Time and Link's Awakening (and have done so for such a long time), but TotK is certainly up there.
30. Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition (GB) | 4/5 - Gen 1 is a mess of glitches and terrible type balancing, bad move pools, annoying HMs, and a pretty steep level curve going from the final gym to the Elite Four. However, I still just love the entire experience so much, especially how open Kanto feels to the player, all of the strangely dark things that never really appeared in the franchise again that are just sprinkled throughout this otherwise really simplistic and childis story, and trying out new weird teams I now try to form after having played the games so many times (Pikachu, Nidoqueen, Farfetch'd, Hypno, Dewgong, and Ninetales this playthrough, by the way.) Honestly prefer the weird sprite work from Red and Blue over Yellow's more refined, but otherwise a game I really can't find too many things I don't like about it.

JULY UPDATE

31. A Space for the Unbound (NSW) | 3.5/5 - Beautiful pixel art and a nice story with an incredible final act, but I have my issues with how it never manages to really marry the more, uh, gameplay-y aspects with the narrative, with both feeling very separate from each other. Also wish some character relationships would get a bit deepened and the slice of life to get a bit more time before the plot goes in a more chaotic direction. Still, definitely a memorable experience (and possibly the first Indonesian game I've played?)
32. Twisted Metal (PS5) | 2/5 - This is garbage.
33. Street Fighter 6 (PS5) | 4.5/5 - The Battle Hub is fantastic, and I love how I can just go play a random arcade game (most of the ones in rotation are garbage, but still!) if I tire of fighting. Ranked isn't really for me, but I see no real issues with it. World tour is... okay. It starts out fun, but it's a bit too long for how uninteresting it is, and it's not a very good tutorial for the game's different mechanics when so much of it can be brute forced through grinding and using items. Fun to get to know the different fighters, though. Oh yeah, and the core gameplay? 5/5, easily. Might very well be the best playing fighting game I've ever touched.
34. Lost Judgment (PS5) | 4/5 - Extremely good setup, but it reveals all its cards a bit too early so there're a lot of chapters towards the end where it feels like the game just repeats itself quite a bit. Luckily, the side content with Yagami as a club advisor is among the most fun I've had with a RGG game, and the combat is by far the best they've ever done (they somehow made crane a good style this time!) Also bought the season pass so I did play Kaito Files, which is fine, but unremarkable and unfortunately ends with an embarrasing final boss that can best be described as an incel power fantasy.
35. Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS) | 3/5 - A remake of the worst Metroid game, and it does certainly improve on the original game (though maybe loses some of Return of Samus' atmosphere), but it's still just a decent game. I did enjoy the decently high difficulty and the new boss fights are great (though the new final boss does feel like a bit of a Necron moment), and while it's also nice that every area does have a distinct identity, the map is very unmemorable, and there's a lot of big rooms with almost nothing in them. The overall structure of Metroid 2 is also just not particularly fun to me; fighting the same metroids over and over again gets old fast.

AUGUST UPDATE

36. Gimmick! Special Edition (NSW) | 4/5 - Fantastic, very cute little platformer that, while it technically only has six stages and could probably be beaten in an hour if just playing it normally, becomes a hellish challenge when going for the true final stage and ending (getting the secret treasure on stages 1-6, using no continues until after the sixth boss.) There's certainly some trial and error here, but luckily it's mostly just really impressive level design that gives you a very high, but still fair challenge, and which makes a lot of use of the game's really impressive physics, with slippery slopes and the main character's bouncing star attack. Incredible graphics and soundtrack as well!!!
37. Mega Man 2 (PS4) | 5/5 - It's Mega Man 2.
38. Final Fantasy XVI (PS5) | 3.5/5 - Weirdly inconsistent game. Storytelling that flips between very good and very bad throughout the entire game, presentation can make the game feel like the most expensive game ever made, while other times it looks like a budget PS4 game, main story missions that are fantastic, and then forcing you to do the most boring, dumb things imaginable for a while. Still certainly a good game imo, but feels like it needed a bit more polish, maybe another rewrite and definitely a bit higher difficulty. I enjoyed the battle system, don't get me wrong, but the battles themselves are way too easy the entire game. Also would have been nice if literally anyone other than Clive got at least some depth to their character.
39. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (NSW) | 4.5/5 - Ashamed it's taken me 20 years to play this gem of a game that I've been very aware of ever since it came out. These weird DnD rules and stats take a while to get used to and I'm still not really sure what's the difference between, for example, charisma and persuasion, but incredible experience for a Star Wars fan nonetheless. Extremely good world building for each planet with choices that actually feel like they matter, a strong cast of characters (except for that hacking droid I used for literally one mission in the game and then never again), and a story that feels traditionally Star Wars-y but still manages to bring interesting new ideas to the table.
40. Yakuza (PS2) | 3/5 - If I were to describe Yakuza with one word, it'd probably be "clunky." The first Yakuza is still a Yakuza game (and I'm pretty sure some of its animations are still used in the games today) so there is fun to be had, but it just doesn't feel particularly good to play. Combat is stiff, and Kiryu sometimes feels like he's trying to attack in the wrong direction, while the fixed camera angles can really screw with both my sense of direction in Kamurocho, and where enemies are in combat. I really enjoyed the atmosphere here, though, with the almost constant bad weather or late night lit up by all the dim Kamurocho lights. It feels a lot seedier than in later games, and it really fits the tone of this darker story. It's also very, very short.
41. Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time (PS3) | 3.5/5 - Maybe the only game in the series with good Clank sections (though I must admit I enjoyed his Lemmings mini-game in Size Matters), and a good variety of action and platforming thanks to the optional planets Ratchet can visit during the adventure. Gameplay feels as smooth as ever, and doesn't have the insane bullet sponges or Ratchet fragility of Tools of Destructions, and while the weapon selection maybe isn't the best in the series, I still enjoyed most of the weapons and pretty easily maxed them out by the end of the game. My main issue is honestly that the main story bores me to tears, it contradicts itself several times, and the comedy really doesn't land nine times out of ten.

SEPTEMBER UPDATE

42. Pokémon Trading Card Game (NSO) | 3/5 - Fun little Pokémon spin-off game that I was way too dumb to understand how to play back in the day, so it was pretty satisfying to sit here as a grown man and realize that I'm actually smarter than I was as a young child. The core gameplay of Pokémon TCG, as it turns out, is actually a lot of fun, but at least here in this video game form feels a bit too reliant on RNG, and cursing at the CPU who seemed to always be extremely lucky with status effecvts and multi-hit attacks. Still, by the end of the game and with a good deck, nothing was that hard when I knew more what I was doing and realized that Blastoise is extremely good. Almost as good as the surprisingly fantastic soundtrack!
43. Pocky & Rocky Reshrined (NSW) | 4/5 - Starts out very much as just a remake of Pocky & Rocky but with better graphics (seriously, the pixel art in this game is so beautiful), but then branches out to become something else that isn't quite a sequel, not quite a reboot, but just, like, Pocky & Rocky from an alternate reality. It's a lot of fun either way, with the run 'n gun gameplay feeling just as good as it did on the snes (maybe even a bit smoother?), and it's certainly a good challenge to get through, though with unlimited continues (I think? I only used two, but there didn't seem to be a limit, at least) so with a bit of patience it's still not that hard for anyone to get to the end, and learning the stages is a lot of fun anyway. Also: yet another fantastic soundtrack.
44. Gargoyle's Quest (3DSVC) | 3/5 - Really good atmosphere, you really feel like you're in a hellish world on the brink of dying from too much war, and Firebrand (who is green on the cover despite everyone in the game mentioning how red he is) has to trek through its very inhospitable biomes to save the demon realm. It's a melancholy you don't really expect from a Ghosts & Goblins spin-off starring its most annoying enemy in the main role. As a platformer, it's fine. The level design's good enough and the pacing of the levels is good, but I can't help but feel like the game is a bit too easy and short for its own good, and the overworld and towns feel very underbaked. The english translation is also pretty awful, but in a sort of charming way.
45. Final Fantasy IV (PS4) | 4/5 - FFIV is a very simple game, and it is annoying how so many characters do noble sacrifices without anyone actually ever dying, or how easily brainwashed Kain is again and again. But I love it and its overall simplicity, both in the very basic, but efficient battle system, as well as the (still fairly insane, and insanely fast paced) story about fighting for what you love be that a person, a kingdom or even the entire world. I personally prefer the graphics and soundtrack of the SNES original, but the Pixel Remaster at least seems to have reduced encounter rate in some places (mainly the final dungeon), which is very much appreciated.

OCTOBER UPDATE

46. Baldur's Gate 3 (PS5) | 5/5 - Insane load times, way too many bugs, very lacking endgame, and one of the best games I've ever played. Pretty steep learning curve for a CRPG novice, but extremely fun turn-based battles once learned, maybe the most dynamic game world I've ever experienced, and a party consisting of some of the most well written (and performed!) video game characters I've had the pleasure to share the adventure with. Not the biggest zones, but they're all so dense and feel basically limitless in how you interact with what's in them, and they looks so beautiful. One of those very rare "this might ruin other games for me for a while" experiences.
47. Mario Tennis (NSO) | 3/5 - It's fun, it's tennis, and despite being very barebones, it at least does the core essentials very well. That is, unless you play doubles with the AI, who seems to actively want to sabotage you and generally just being dumb as bricks which made winning the doubles tournament by far the most infuriating thing I've done in a game 2023 (trying to win it, I mean. Actually winning it felt pretty good). Great fun in multiplayer, though!
48. Alan Wake Remastered + DLC Episodes (PS5) | 3/5 - Decent, but had hoped for more. Starts out on a fairly intriguing mystery and setting, but I feel like the game barely scratches its weird, Twin Peaks-y surface, and most of the first half is just Alan jogging around a forest, doing clunky combat and running out of breath after sprinting for about a second. The second half is a lot better in both combat design and just generally throwing Alan into more varied settings, and the plot does throw out some interesting concepts (though the execution of said concepts aren't always the best) so it at least gets better, though it never feels like it completely lives up to its potential. The DLC shouldn't be worth anyone's time, not really adding anything to the story, and mainly being more of the bad combat, plus throwing in some pretty terrible platforming along the way as well. The second episode does have some pretty fun, trippy set pieces, though.
49. Slay the Princess (PC) | 3.5/5 - By far the best looking game of 2023, and I can't see anything beating these hand-drawn images of both beauty and extreme violence. Also extremely reactive to every player choice, with basically everything you do will change which story you'll encounter next. Stories that are all really good, I should add, with some pretty fantastic writing that often manages to go from surprisingly funny to really creepy in instant without feeling the least bit jarring. Main issue with Slay the Princess is, sadly, that the endgame is pretty lacklustre, not really affected by previous choices at all, and tries to really sell the "this is a love story" angle without really earning it during any other part of the game. It can also feel a bit overwritten at times, with some scenes having way too much dialogue that doesn't really add anything other than really putting a damper on the otherwise really snappy pacing in each story.

NOVEMBER GAMES

50. Castlevania Legends (NSO) | 2/5 - At least it's not Castlevania: The Adventure.
51. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5) | 3.5/5 - Still so much fun to swing around New York (now slightly bigger than before!), combat is still super smooth, and Insomniac's technical wizardry is unparallelled in the industry, with them producing some of the best, biggest set pieces gaming has ever seen and the most impressive fast travelling the world has ever seen. Pretty big issues with the story, though, especially the final third when the ball is dropped extremely hard, everything feels so rushed, the impressive set pieces disappear, and Miles gets the worst suit he's ever worn for literally no reason. One of the most fun games of the year, but also the biggest disappointment to me.
52. Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster (PS4) | 4/5 - It's Final Fantasy VI.
53. Super Mario RPG (NSW) | 4/5 - Nostalgic trip down memory lane with a game that charms to this day with its often very strange characters and world that's never been seen again after Mario RPG. Maybe a bit too easy, but not really an issue to me since it results in short battles and more time with all the weirdness that I could just soak in forever. Really safe remake that's basically just the exact same game with better graphics and rearranged soundtrack, but it does at least look and sound very good.

DECEMBER UPDATE

54. The Secret of Monkey Island (PS3) | 4/5 - The Special Edition graphics look awful, but at least you can switch over to the (very charming) original look of the game. No matter how it looks, though, definitely one of my favorite point & click games of all time, and despite being over 30 years old, the humor still hits just as well now as I'm sure it did back then. Probably not my favorite in the franchise, but there's something special about it that was just never replicated, and I'm not really sure what. Maybe the high energy enthusiasm it exudes? Not sure, but whatever the case may be, still an absolutely fantastic little adventure that somehow never seems to age, and with a fantastic soundtrack as well!
55. Persona 5 Tactica (PS5) | 3/5 - A niche within a niche (a Persona 5 spin-off that's also an SRPG) that seems to have sold about two copies, and a game that, sadly, feels somewhat like the older Persona spin-offs in which character were sort of boiled down to one characteristic, making them all a bit boring and, at times, seemingly absolutely insane. The SRPG aspect of the game is good, though! It's maybe a bit too easy and unlike Persona 5 Strikers doesn't feel all that Persona-y (but fusing new personas is still as fun as ever!), though it's still fun, manages to switch things up often enough with some clever gimmicks. Uneven, but at times fantastic soundtrack.
56. A Highland Song (NSW) | 3/5 - Played through it twice, once sort of learning the ropes and getting to the uncle late, and then a replay where I understood the game better and got there on time. I hated the game on my first playthrough, but learned to enjoy the game more on my second playthrough when I met more people on my journey, understood the map mechanics better (you actually have to get to the peaks and point out paths to be able to progress in the game, which I somehow beat the entire game without realizing previously. I blame the fever.), and learned better to appreciate getting lost in the beautiful setting and the struggles of traversing across the mountains. Still didn't love the constant rain, every collectible being yet another scrap of a map, or not really being given time to appreciate the world since I was going against the clock, though.
57. Dead Space (2023) (PS5) | 4/5 - Played the original game almost exactly eight years before I began playing this remake, and while this seems to be very faithful to the original from what I can recall, I had a much greater time on the Nostromo in 2023 than 2015. Dead Space is not really a scary game whatsoever to me, but it does have an extremely strong, oppressive atmosphere, looks proper next (or is it current now?) gen and has some of the best sound mixing of the year that did make me a bit paranoid at times and look for enemies that may or may not be near, or even exist. Super fun third person shooter gameplay as well.
58. Gravity Circuit (PS5) | 3.5/5 - Gravity Circuit has a pretty boring story and a grappling hook that feels really bad to use for anything other than attacking enemies with, but it sure is a good time running through its pseudo 16-bit stages, punching enemies, throwing enemies at other enemies, and platforming at high speeds to reach one of eight bosses at the end while great chiptune music plays. Almost like Capcom should try and develop something similar...
59. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (NSW) | 4/5 - I don't want to say too much since The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is all about that story (and making your own tarot cards, which is surprisingly fun), but what I can say is that this is probably my favorite narrative of the year, and definitely the one the feels the most mature. Not only in its language and very sex positive attitude, but also in how it tackles themes such as transhumanism, severe depression, gender dysphoria and found families, and it does so extremely well with nothing feeling forced whatsoever, and it's all depicted in a thoughtful way. Ending absolutely wrecked me emotionally :').
60. Jusant (PS5) | 3/5 - As much as I'm impressed by how much Jusant gets out of its climbing mechanic, it's really not a super interesting game to me. It's a nice few hours, but even if I wasn't bored by the constant climbing, I also wasn't really loving it either, and the writing is so incredibly stiff and boring that I just stopped picking up the letters after a while, and every type of collectible is equally as boring, like walls you light up to... Get a poorly written poem? I don't know, Jusant is a decent game, beautiful at times even, but very much a 3/5 experience that I can look back on and appreciate, but not really be interested in enough to probably ever revisit.

Arshes · Jan 1, 2023

Past Years: 2020 | 2021 | 2022

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion (PS5) | January 9th - 33 Hours | 4/5
Super Mario All Stars - Super Mario Bros (NSW) |January 10th - 1 hours | 4/5
Boxboy + Boxgirl (NSW) | January 11th - 8 Hours | 4/5
Super Mario All Stars - Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (NSW) | January 13th - 3 Hours, Real Time 16~ Hours | 3.5/5
Super Mario All Stars - Super Mario Bros 2 (NSW) | January 14th - 3 Hours | 3.5/5
Super Mario All Stars - Super Mario Bros 3 (NSW) | January 19th - 6 Hours | 4/5
Zelda Sudoku (Browser) | January 25th - 3 Hours | 3.5/5
Dead Space Remake (PS5) | January 28th - 17 Hours | 4/5
Metroid Prime Remastered (NSW) | February 11th - 14 Hours, 12 Minutes | 5/5
Super Mario Land 2 : 6 Golden Coins (NSW) | February 11th - 4 Hours | 4/5
Kirby''s Dream Land (NSW) | February 12th - 1 Hours | 3/5
Kuru Kuru Kururin (NSW) | February 14th - 4 Hours | 3/5
Resident Evil 2 (PS5) | February 16th - 15 Hours | 4.5/5
Inscryption (PS5) | February 18th - 9 Hours | 4/5
Live A Live (NSW) | February 22nd - 33 Hours | 4/5
Final Fantasy Legend (NSW) | February 22nd - 10 Hours | 3/5
Octopath Traveler 2 (PS5) | March 8th - 114 Hours | 5/5
Resident Evil 4 Remake (PS5) | March 31st - 20 Hours | 5/5
Shin Megami Tensei 2 - Chaos Route (SFC) | April 16th - 40 Hours | 3.5/5
Shin Megami Tensei If... - Reiko Route (SFC) | April 19th - 30 Hours | 3.5/5
Shin Megami Tensei If... - Akira Route (SFC) | April 22nd - 20 Hours | 3.5/5
Soul Blazer (SNES) | April 24th - 12 Hours | 4/5
Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (NSW) | April 28th - 32 Hours, 54 Minutes | 5/5
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS5) | May 4th - 30 Hours | 4/5
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon (NSW) | May 10th - 25 Hours | 4/5
The Legend of Zelda (NSW) | May 11th - 8 Hours | 3.5/5
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (NSW) | May 24th - 160 Hours | 5/5
Humanity (PS5) | May 26th - 20 Hours | 4/5
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster (PS4) | June 1st - 16 Hours | 3.5/5
Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster (PS4) | June 3rd - 24 Hours | 2.5/5
Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster (PS4) | June 5th - 20 Hours | 4/5
Final Fantasy XVI (PS5) | June 30th - 80 Hours | 5/5
Pikmin (NSW) | July 1st - 8 Hours | 4/5
Pikmin 2 (NSW) | July 7th - 23 Hours, 40 Minutes | 4/5
FInal Fantasy X HD Remaster (PS4) | July 20th - 80 Hours | 4.5/5
Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster (PS4) | August 7th - 25 Hours | 4/5
Boxboy (3DS) | August 12th - 6 Hours | 4/5
Pushmo (3DS) | August 17th - 14 Hours | 4/5
Pacman World Re-Pac (PS5) | August 21st - 7 Hours | 3.5/5
Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS) | September 1st - 8 Hours | 4/5
3d Classics: Urban Champion (3DS) | September 2nd - 30 Minutes | 1/5
New Super Mario Bros (DS) | September 4th - 11 Hours ! 4/5
Super Mario Land (3ds) | September 17th - 1 Hour | 3/5
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (NSW) | September 18th - 12 Hours | 5/5
Liberation Maiden (3ds) | September 19th - 2 Hours | 3.5/5
Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways (PS5) | September 21st - 5 Hours, 38 Minutes | 5/5
Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS) | September 22nd - 10 Hours | 4/5
Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon (PS5) | September 30th - 10 Hours | 4.5/5
Ghostwire Tokyo Prelude - The Corrupted Casefile (PS5) | October 3rd - 30 Minutes | 2.5/5
Ys I Chonicles + (PC) | October 7th - 14 Hours | 3.5/5
Unpacking (PS5) | October 8th - 3 Hours | 3.5/5
Hexcells (PC) | October 9th - 2 Hours | 3.5/5
Sonic the Hedgehog (PS5) | October 13th - 2 Hours, 30 Minutes | 3/5
Sonic CD (PS5) | October 13th - 3 Hours | 3.5/5
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (PS5) | October 14th - 3 Hours | 4/5
Super Mario World (NSW) | October 19th - 5 hours | 4/5
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (PS5) | October 19th - 8 Hours | 4/5
Spider-Man 2 (PS5) | October 23rd - 30 Hours | 4.5/5
Super Mario Bros Wonder (NSW) | October 24th - 12 Hours | 5/5
Alan Wake Remastered (PS5) | October 27th - 20 Hours | 4/5
Alan Wake: American Nightmare (PC) | October 28th - 5 Hours, 41 Minutes | 3.5/5
Control (PS5) | October 31st - 15 Hours | 4/5
Castlevania (NSW) | November 18th - 4 Hours | 3.5/5
Persona 5 Tactica (PS5) | November 22nd - 35 Hours | 4/5
Persona 5 Tactica - Repaint Your Heart (PS5) | November 22nd- 4 Hours | 4/5
Super Mario RPG (NSW) | November 30th - 15 Hours | 5/5

52 Games Completed - October 9th

Dest · Jan 1, 2023

2023 LIST LETS GOOOO

1. The Citadel

TTC: About 4 hours | Start Date 1/1/23 | Complete date 1/1/23

Interesting little retro inspired FPS game. Something I'd like to see a sequel too and expanded on. Pretty straight forward, but overall pretty fun. Weirdly includes things like bullet drop??? But that's pretty neat!

2. Cultic

TTC: About 3 hours | Start Date 1/13/23 | Complete date 1/14/23

A little short, but overall a really great boomer shooter. Can't wait for the next one.

3. Ridge Racer 2

TTC: About 6 hours | Start Date ??/??/22 | Complete date 1/14/23

Pure arcade racing goodness. It's the greatest hits compilation of Ridge Racer and it's fucking excellent. If you've got a PSP/VITA or a PS4/PS5 and the PS+ Premimum whatever and you haven't played this you're missing out.

4. Record of Lodoss War -Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-

TTC: About 5 hours | Start Date 1/15/22 | Complete Date 1/15/22

I don't have any relationship with the Record of Lodoss War anime, but gave this a shot as I liked what I played of Team Ladybugs last game and yup. This shit kicks ass. There's a lot of metroidvania style games I want to get around to this year that I've skipped out on, but this is a fuckin' high bar to clear.

5. Ys I

TTC: About 10 hours | Start Date 1/20/23 | Complete Date 1/21/23

Game is really great and holds up pretty damn well outside of a couple of bosses that are complete and total bullshit.

6. Babylon's Fall

TTC: About 20 hours | Start Date: 10/6/22 | Complete Date 2/5/23

This game sucks shit glad it's dead.
BONUS ROUND I got the platinum trophy for this bullshit on 2/23.

7. Atomic Heart

TTC: About 22 hours | Start Date: 2/21/23 | Complete Date: 2/27/23

This game like... Almost great!

8. Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga

TTC: About 15 hours | Start Date: I don't remember | Complete date: 3/11/23

Still great!

9. Drome Racers

TTC: About 5 hours | Start Date: 3/11/23 | Complete date: 3/12/23

Mid as fuck

10. Half-Life

TTC: About 8 hours | Start Date: 3/12/23 | Complete date | 3/18/23

10/10 even if Xen honestly kinda sucks.

11. Pikmin

TTC: About 6 hours | Start Date: 3/25/23 | Complete date: 3/26/23

Banger

12. Pineapple on Pizza

TTC: About 30 minutes | Start date: 3/28/23 | Complete date: 3/28/23

I mean fine sure whatever.

13. Lego Builder's Journey

TTC: About 2 hours | Start date: 4/2/23 | Complete date: 4/2/23

Cute little puzzle game with absolutely excellent raytracing.

14. Resident Evil 4 (2023)

TTC: 13 hours | Start date: 3/23/23 | Complete date: 4/8/23

BANGER BANGER BANGER BANGER BANGER BANGER BANGER BANGER BANGER 10/10

15. Signalis

TTC: 7 hours | Start date: 7/29/23 | Complete date: 7/30/23

Absolutely incredible.

Mashdyno · Jan 1, 2023

2016 - 40
2017 - 36
2018 - 39
2019 - 32
2020 - 28
2021 - 30
2022 - 35

Running Total: 32/52

Currently Playing:
Baldur's Gate 3 - PS5

Completed:

1. The Quarry - PS5
Completed 1/2/22
*This is not a bad effort for games in this genre. Really high production quality, nice character models and environments. Some of the environments are way too dark and are hard to navigate and the black bars made it feel like I was playing this game with blinders on. Its a fun summer horror camp story and I mostly had fun with it. 7.5/10

2. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands - PS5
Completed 1/8/23
*This might be my favorite Borderlands game since the original release. Its limited by being a Borderlands game which always starts to get old by the end of the game. I will give this game credit for adding some interesting things to tinker with after finishing the campaign but by then I was a little tired of the same combat with very similar enemies. I like the overworld concept, sans the random battles, did not like those. I heard that this game was smaller than other Borderlands releases but I thought it was the perfect length with plenty to do. Had fun but would love to see Gearbox really try some new things with this series. 7.5/10

3. Marvel's Midnight Suns - PS5
Completed 1/30/23
*I wish I would've played/finished this game last year because it absolutely would've competed for my GOTY. It does have some strange things about the game that are seemingly low budget but that didn't detract from the game as a whole. The tactical combat is satisfying with so many options that it reminded me of Mario + Rabbids. The story was surprisingly good and I found myself very invested in the characters and wanting to see it through. I may actually get the season pass and I have never done that before. 8.5/10

4. Chained Echoes - PC
Completed 2/3/23
*Super impressive for such a small dev team. I like alot of things about this game, especially the ground combat vs mech combat. There were some innovative things in combat with the overdrive system but ultimately I just want to be able to pick the actions that are best for the situation but I appreciated that it made you think about how to handle certain situations. Good music, cool characters, worth it for 16 bit era RPG fans. 7.5/10

5. Hi-fi Rush - PC
Completed 2/13/23
*I liked this game way more than I thought I would when it was announced on the developer direct. It also grew on me the more I played it. The last few tracks are some of the most fun I had in the whole game. You also get better at playing the game by the end so combat is a sort of ballet that feels very natural the more you do it. While I don't think this is going to win my GOTY for 2023, I could definitely see it on my top 10. 8.0/10

6. Dead Space - PS5
Completed 2/19/23
*I only remember playing about half of Dead space when it first came out, Im so glad they remade this. I just more of this genre, setting, style of game. Just so much fun cutting off necromorph limbs and running around a ruined space station. 9.0/10

7. Hardspace Shipbreaker - PC
Completed 2/25/23
*This is a perfect game to listen to a podcast to. Salvaging ships does get old after a while but I wanted to see the story through so I kept going and Im glad I did. This was a fun game to play in between major releases and Im glad it was on game pass. 7.0/10

8. Mafia Definitive Edition - PS5
Completed 3/8/23
*The best way to describe this game is open world linear. But the worst part about this game is the driving. Knowing its a remaster means I have to give the game a break on its antiquated mission design and gameplay. I thought the character model upgrades were quite nice and the premise is still a really fun vector for a video game. 7.0/10

9. Atomic Heart - XBS
Completed 3/11/23
*So yes, I also thought that the writing was cringy was overall very bad. I think there are some things lost in translation and comedy can differ culturally. There are other systems that I really didnt care for, the alarm system, the respawning enemies, the inventory system. The open world is not my favorite, but for completionists its cool to have lots of areas to explore with additional areas to get custom weapon attachments. I loved the world Atomic Heart creates and the gameplay is fun enough. Pretty decent length with some cool weapon variety. I really hope Mundfish gets the chance to iterate on this and make a really great sequel that the devs are clearly capable of. 8.0/10

10. Ruined King - PS5
Completed 3/21/23
*I actually thought this game was really well made and had some fun characters and nuanced combat. The lane system was clever but it didnt end up being as impactful as I thought. Granted I played on a lower difficulty so it could have been more important to time your attacks with harder enemies. Graphically the world looks nice and it has some really nice audio design. I dont know much about the league of legends world but everythign Ive seen from it so far has been pretty cool. 8.0/10

11. Tchia - PS5
Completed 3/26/23
*This game is a beautiful love letter to a culture that I knew very little about. Its a fairly small and contained open world but there are quite a few things to collect and do. Traversing the world as various animals is actually quite fun and controlling Tchia feels really great. The music is also a highlight for me, its very good and playing along with various local instruments is incredibly cool. 7.5/10

12. Gotham Knights - PS5
Completed 4/20/23
*I actually had a good amount of fun with this game but overall I couldn't say that its a great game. Its good, and does some things well and at the end of the day its a batman game which is inherently awesome. Combat can be fun and fluid but at times its incredibly unbalanced, probably due to level requirements and enemies not scaling to character level. The open world is mostly a shell with only a few uninspired activities to play around with. Im glad I played it but now I really just want a new batman game. 7.0/10

13. Horizon Forbidden West - Burning Shores - PS5
Completed 4/29/23
*This game is an absolute visual showcase, I couldn't've believe just how unbelievable it looks. The new cloud tech is just phenomenal and gives a real sense of being in the space when flying among them. The story and gameplay was fine. Id like to see Guerilla really tighten up some aspects of the game going forward. Namely, gear and weapons, skills, resources. Overall for $20 I was very happy to support this amazing studio. 9.0/10

14. Resident Evil 4 - PS5
Completed 5/6/23
*I was never able to finish the original game when it first came out, I was way too scared to play games like that back then. Now I love them and had a ton of fun blasting my way through RE4. I can see why its a favorite for fans of the franchise. I definitely see shades of RE4 in Village and the QOL improvements to this game made it a much more enjoyable time. Im pretty much sold on whatever Capcom decides to do with this franchise. 9.0/10

15. Dead Island 2 - PS5
Completed 5/27/23
*Pleasantly surprised with this game and truthfully wanted to spend more time with it. Combat is still not great, some enemies will just stand there and trade blows with you as you bash their skulls in which didnt feel very fun. Some of the late game boss fights are just obnoxious, especially the last encounter. Just a small room with disappearing cover with an enemy that can one shot you and is a massive bullet sponge. The game is beautiful though, fantastic environments with pretty good audio design. Felt genuinely scary at times. 7.5/10

16. Diablo IV - PS5
Completed 6/23/23
*This is everything I wanted from a new Diablo game. So ready for season 1 to start! Having fun with the end game but would love to see more and more added over time. 9.0/10

17. Final Fantasy XVI - PC
Completed 8/4/23
*I did every side quest and hunt and resolved pretty much every thread I could in this game. I loved the world and characters and the combat was really great. I did feel like there were some limitations but Im willing to forgive them because of how the game unfolded. The story overall delved into a bit of classic RPG trope type stuff but I did enjoy it overall. Also, the music was sublime. Love this game, Final Fantasy is back. 9.5/10

18. The Last Case of Benedict Fox - XBS
Completed 8/6/23
*I got a bit obsessed with game over the weekend and ended up finishing it. The game has some really great things going for it, the limbo worlds are very cool and well realized. I enjoyed the item system and ability to upgrade gear. There are a couple of set piece sections that are a quite frustrating, no checkpoints and snap decisions where you start all the way over if you fail. Overall its a perfect game pass game and I had a good time. 7.5/10

19. Venba - XBS
Completed 8/7/23
*Just a wonderful short experience that celebrates Indian culture. I loved that I was able to play this through game pass because I almost definitely would have skipped it otherwise. 8.0/10

20. The Wandering Village - XBS
Completed 8/13/23
*I got sucked into this like I never would have expected. There are some really cool things happening with this game but it also needs more crop options and the research tree should be expanded. But I love the art style and getting ahead, the biomes are very interesting and keep you on your toes. 7.5/10

21. Starfield - XBS
Completed 9/24/23
*In many ways this is the game Ive always wanted, I love sci fi and being able to explore space with some hand crafted side quests thrown in sounds amazing. There are many things about this game that were disappointing but I had fun with it. I dont think Ill keep going though, I dont feel motivated to see what else the game has, new game plus wipes all quest progress so Im out. 7.5/10

22. Sea of Stars - PS5
Completed 10/12-23
*When I originally finished this game I really liked it, then I went through the trouble of getting the "true" ending and man I love this game. Its certainly not perfect and I do have some minor gripes. I believe Sabatoge is a smaller studio so I understand that the scope was limited out of necessity. But for a gamer of my age this just hit so many of the high notes that I wanted it to. The story was great but there were individual story beats that were just magnificent. Well done, and I hope they come back with more games like this in the future. 9.5/10

23. Planet of Lana - XBS
Completed 7/19/23
*A great game pass game, short but a cool story and world to explore. Love the relationship between you and the alien creature. Not too difficult or long, really enjoyed it. 7.5/10

24. UFC 5 - XBS
Completed 10/28/23
*I wouldnt have played this game but I was in the mood for a fighting sim and the 10 hour trial is a godsend. I used to love the fight night games and this did the trick. In some ways this game is very impressive but it other ways its incredibly inadequate. Some of the slow mo replays are totally ridiculous in terms of hit detection and character reactions. The training is pretty basic and gets so repetitive. I did have fun with it though and am so thankful for EA play being included with game pass. 7.0/10

25. Cocoon - XBS
Completed 11/4/23
*This game is so cool and I so glad it was on game pass. The puzzles were mostly not too difficult and they threw in some boss fights that really add another dimension to the game. Super fun, not too long and just cannot recommend this enough to game pass subscribers. 8.0/10

26. Spiderman 2 - PS5
Completed 11/6/23
*Insomniac does it again. They somehow made the traversal even better than it was before with the wing suit and traversal skills, I would have liked to have seen some more in that category but it was still such a joy just to swing around and feel like Spiderman. I liked the story, its somewhat limited by what it can do because its in the Marvel universe but I thought it was a new spin on an old character that resonated emotionally. Anything this studio does with this IP is a must play. 9.0/10

27. Alan Wake 2 - PS5
Completed 11/13/23
*I love how Remedy has a very distinct visual style with in game graphics and real time video. I had a great time exploring the beautiful environments, the semi open world format really worked for this type of game. The duality of Saga and Alan with different weapon sets and upgrades was a very cool touch as well. This game was way meatier and longer than I was expecting, its really got quite a long main quest and exploring side content really added to it. Needless to say, Remedy has once again leveled up and Im all in on the cinematic universe they have created. 9.0/10

28. Jusant - XBS
Completed 11/18/23
*This was such a nice chill game to reset after making it through Alan Wake 2 so I had a great time just climbing up this mountain. The puzzles werent too heavy or difficult and the climbing ropes they give you are very versatile and allow alot of freedom. 7.5/10

29. Surviving the Aftermath - PC
Completed 12/2/23
*I usually wait for a sale for these kinds of games because normally they are too hard and I end up giving up. This game was the free EGS game recently so it was the perfect time to jump in. The difficulty sliders at the start of this game made all of the difference to me and I loved playing this all the way through. Its not the perfect city builder/survival game but because I was able to play it at my pace it felt so good. Now Im going to look out for games like this from the same dev team. 7.5/10

30. Steamworld: Build - PC
Completed 12/9/23
*I love all of the Steam World games so its no surprise that I like this one too. Ive played alot of city builders lately and Im very happy this is a short experience and not a long drawn out campaign. 8.0/10

31. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - PS5
Completed 12/14/23
*This game does not get the credit it deserves. Its got stunning visuals, great music and audio design, fun characters and plenty of awesome locations to explore. The platforming is very satisfying late in the game and its a very beefy story length wise. I wasnt super excited after Fallen Order but I might be there for day 1 for the conclusion of this trilogy. 8.5/10

32. Cult of the Lamb - PS5
Completed 12/25/23
*I loved the unique take on city builder/citizen management. Very charming aesthetic and awesome music. The combat and dungeon crawling portion was fun enough but I mostly enjoyed the village management. 8.0/10

Quit/Abandoned:

Ghostwire Tokyo - I was so disappointed that I couldn't play this game because ive been waiting for it to hit gamepass/ps plus for a while now. But the controls are just broken and terrible. I couldn't get over the input lag no matter what I tried to tweak, smgdh.

Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem - I'm sure there is an audience for this kind of game, but I am not that audience.

Massive Chalice - The 1 thing that killed this game for me is that you have a fight or 2 with your heroes and then they get old and you start over. Didn't like that.

Wartales - Maybe ill give it another chance, didnt click with me, felt kinda loose and not the tight experience I need with these types of games.

Persona 5 Tactica -

Lamplighters Leage -

sosadtoday · Jan 1, 2023

2021.
2022.

#	Game	Platform	Rating
1.	Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy	PS5	4.5/5
2.	Norco	PC	4/5
3.	Kirby and the Forgotten Land	Switch	4.5/5
4.	Kirby Star Allies	Switch	4/5
5.	Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart	PS5	4/5
6.	Planet of Lana	PC	2/5
7.	Lake	PC	2,5/5

KOfLegend · Jan 1, 2023

Total Games Beaten: 139/52

January

1. Sayonara Wild Hearts (PS5) | Jan 2nd - 1hr | 5/5 | The ritual of Sayonara Wild Hearts being my first completion of every year continues! Still an incredibly special game. Hit extra hard this time due do personal reasons as well, so I ended up loving my time with it more than usual. I don't really know what else to add, this is the definition of a masterpiece to me. Wild hearts never die <3

2. Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below (PS5) | Jan 4th - 45hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3.5/5 | One of the few Musou/Warriors games I can actually stomach. The gameplay's fun but I can't lie and say the Dragon Quest charm doesn't carry this game completely on its back. I've heard Heroes II is a lot better, so I'm really excited to check that one out.

3. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (PS5) | Jan 9th - 20hrs [100%] | 3.5/5 | This was cute! It was made on a shoestring budget and you can feel it every step of the way but it's impressive for what is essentially a Kickstarter stretch goal. pretty much every single aspect of the game is fun but repetitive, but it's on the shorter side so you don't really feel that until the final chunk of the game.

4. The Messenger (PS5) | Jan 11th - 11hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4.5/5 | Still one of my favorite indie game releases of the past decade. Starts off solid, but it really starts shining at around the halfway mark (if you know, you know). Gorgeous art, great music and tight gameplay = very fun times.

5. The Messenger: Picnic Panic (PS5) | Jan 11th - 3hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3.5/5 | Really good piece of content that's held back by an infuriating first boss and some weird design choices. Still, really good stuff especially for its asking price of $0.

6. Super Kiwi 64 (Deck) | Jan 12th - 1hr [100%] | 3/5 | Cute, short and fun. Better than the Toree games, but not by much. I really hope this creator ends up making a bigger full-fledged game because they clearly understand what works and what doesn't.

7. Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk (Deck) | Jan 13th - 1hr | 3/5 | A wonderful exploration of agoraphobia among other things coupled with a really, really strong visual style.

8. Milk Outside a Bag of Milk Outside a Bag of Milk (Deck) | Jan 13th - 1hr | 3/5 | I seem to be in the minority, but I found this more middling than the first game. The subject matter is once again handled with a lot of care, but it drags. The first game had tighter pacing and a much stronger visual style imo.

9. Grimm's Hollow (Deck) | Jan 13th - 3hrs | 3.5/5 | This was cute! Randomly decided to check it out because it was free on steam and I wasn't disappointed! It's an RPG Maker ass RPG Maker game, but there was definitely a lot of soul put into it. It's too easy though.

10. ElecHead (Deck) | Jan 13th - 1.5hrs | 4/5 | Really cute, smart puzzle platformer. Perfect pacing, perfect length and perfect difficulty. My only gripe with it is that I wish it were a little more visually interesting.

11. Crumble (Deck) | Jan 16th - 3hrs | 2.5/5 | The idea of this is so cool, and it looks like a blast. Playing it, however...well, my fucking thumbs hurt. I just wish the execution was better across the board.

12. Foxyland (PS5) | Jan 18th - 1hr [100%] | 2/5 | It was $0.50 on PSN. Don't judge.

13. Foxyland 2 (PS5) | Jan 18th - 1hr [100%] | 2/5 | It was also $0.50 on PSN. Don't judge. Please.

14. Stray (PS5) | Jan 19th - 3hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3.5/5 | Technically not a "real" replay since I decided to go back and run through the game for the speedrun trophy, but it's been long enough since my first playthrough of the game. Still feel the same way about it. The vibes carry an otherwise middling game.

15. Fire Emblem Engage (Switch) | Jan 21st - 19hrs | 3/5 | I'll start with the good, which is the fact that this game is absolutely gorgeous, and the gameplay's great. Most of the maps are pretty good, and the combat improvements are wonderful. I liked Three Houses' combat system, but I'm glad they brought back the weapon triangle. Break is also a pretty interesting mechanic and the engage mechanic, while absolutely broken at times, is always fun to use. This game feels like it should the blueprint for FE going forward gameplay-wise.

Then there's everything else.

I have no idea what happened, but in terms of story, characters and writing, this is easily the worst in the franchise (from what I've played) and a huge step back from Three Houses. The main premise of the plot feels like it came straight out of a Musou/Warriors game in the worst way possible, the tone is half saturday morning cartoon half anime political thriller (it's as terrible as it sounds), the characters are incredibly lifeless and unbelievably boring, and the writing is laughably bad. This is all incredibly shocking especially after Three Houses, which absolutely nailed those things imo. I still remember Three Houses' cast (Black Eagles forever). I'm going to be shocked if I remember any of the characters in this game by the end of next week.

As I said, the gameplay's fantastic but the absolutely awful, bottom-of-the-barrel...everything else makes this my least favorite Fire Emblem game I've played.

16. Chained Echoes (PS5) | Jan 25th - 40hrs [100%] | 4/5 | This was pretty good! It felt like it was trying to imitate other games instead of being its own thing (ala Axiom Verge) during act 1, but it slowly started finding its own identity afterwards. Serviceable story, fun characters, really engaging combat system and great music. All around fun time. It would've been a lot better without sky armors though, which always felt tacked on. Also, the game constantly changes your party formation for silly reasons and it was always infuriating.

17. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP - Deck) | Jan 26th - 11hrs [Replay] | 3/5 | The combat is weird, demon negotiation takes too long, dungeons are either linear hallways or straight up mazes, the cast is not the greatest and the pacing is unhinged. The first Persona game is really rough around the edges, but...man, it completely absorbs you with its atmosphere. I simultaneously loved and hated replaying this.

18. Hi-Fi RUSH (XSX) | Jan 28th - 8.5hrs | 3.5/5 | Between Kingdom Hearts 3, Kena: Bridge of Spirits (which I've yet to play) and now this, I'm glad PS2 games are making a comeback. And my god this is the most PS2 ass PS2 game I've played in years, from the Ben-10-tie-in-game art style and the simplistic level design to the immense amount of creativity and joy emanating out of it. The gameplay's so fantastic (the slew of accessibility options were a really nice addition) that it carries the game even during its rough parts (of which there are plenty). Really glad Tango got to stretch their wings a little with this.

19. OMNO (PS5) | Feb 2nd - 4hrs [Replay - 100%] | 2.5/5 | Initially played this when it first came out and I only replayed for an easy platinum. It's very clearly made with a lot of love but man is everything about it just...blah. It tries to emulate "artsy" games (ala Journey) without really understanding what made them special.

20. Super Stardust Portable (PS5) | Feb 2nd - 2hrs [Replay - 100%] | 2/5 | A twin-stick shooter where the other stick is the fucking face buttons on the controller. No.

21. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS5) | Feb 4th - 11hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3/5 | A lot worse than I remember. the gameplay's incredibly clunky, the story isn't the greatest and they still hadn't nailed the characterizations of the main cast so plenty of the dialogue comes across as awkward and stilted. Still, it's a pretty fun romp overall. "Greatness from small beginnings" is an important phrase in the franchise, and it describes this game perfectly. Also, playing it on crushing difficulty was an absolutely miserable experience.

22. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS5) | Feb 6th - 11hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4.5/5 | The definition of a perfect sequel. Better story, setting, pacing, visuals, gameplay, set pieces, music and more. This is the game that truly put (the current form of) Naughty Dog on the map imo.

23. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS5) | Feb 7th - 9hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4/5 | Not as tight and cohesive as Among Thieves due to being just a tiny bit more ambitious, but it's still a fun romp.

24. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS5) | Feb 11th - 21hrs [Replay - 100%] | 5/5 | Easily the best Uncharted game and it isn't even close. It has the best story (not that the bar for that is particularly high, but still), best writing, consistently great set-pieces, best villains (again, low bar), best performances and by far the best gameplay. It's also still mind-bogglingly gorgeous. Naughty Dog learned a lot of things while making The Last of Us, and the results of that are on full display here. Genuinely forgot how amazing this game is.

25. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS5) | Feb 13th - 14hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4.5/5 | Probably the most experimental Naughty Dog game in recent memory? Not to be confused with ambitious (that goes to The Last of Us Part II), but they were really trying a bunch of new things here. It's not as good as Uncharted 4 (playing both back-to-back hurts this game quite a bit), but this is a fantastic game when you look at it as a wholly separate entity. Chloe's my favorite character in the franchise and Nadine is my favorite villain, so their banter was always fun to hear and it carries the game pretty hard since it's just them for the most part. The gameplay's just as good, if not better than Uncharted 4's (this is the first Naughty Dog game that truly nails their "Wide Linear" design approach), and the story's relatively simple but well told. the only two things that hurt this game are the lack of location variety and its short length. All in all, it's really good send-off to Naughty Dog's Uncharted games (because we all now some other studio's probably working on Uncharted 5 right now).

26. The Last of Us Part I (PS5) | Feb 18th - 12hrs [100%] | 5/5 | Still every bit as as good as it was 10 years ago. I really don't know what else to say that hasn't been already said. An absolute masterclass in every single way imaginable.

27. The Last of Us Part I: Left Behind (PS5) | Feb 18th - 2hrs [100%] | 5/5 | Still probably my favorite piece of DLC ever released. I don't even consider this DLC to be honest because, to me, this is an essential companion piece to The Last of Us and the story told here is insanely integral to Ellie's character, who is essentially the franchise's lead. I adore both parts of The Last of Us, but Left Behind will always be my favorite thing to come out of the series. Bias comes into play here of course, but I really do think Naughty Dog delivered an absolutely magnetic 2 hours with this, and I'm glad it's seemingly going to get the love and recognition it deserves in the HBO adaptation.

Don't go </3

28. Rhythm Sprout: Sick Beats & Bad Sweets (Deck) | Feb 23rd - 3hrs | 3/5 | Cute little rhythm game! The visuals are cute and the writing is often hilarious, but the actual rhythm game parts are a bit eh. The soundtrack's a mixed bag and the gameplay's a little off. Still had a great time overall, though.

29. Hogwarts Legacy (PS5) | Feb 26th - 54hrs [100%] | 3.5/5 | The first 5 hours of this game were magical. Running around hogwarts and attending classes felt like an absolute dream.

Then the rest of the game happened.

The plot is bad, the characters are two dimensional cardboard cutouts, the world design is bland and the game is overstuffed with collectibles. The realization that this is just an average open world game with two incredible hub areas (Hogwarts and Hogsmeade) hits you like a truck. Still, the game's fun enough to play that I platinumed it. But man, it could've been so much more.

30. Pentiment (Deck) | Feb 28th - 15hrs | 3/5 | Really wanted to love this but so much of it didn't click with me unfortunately. The only part I found myself really enjoying was Act 2, as Act 1 takes too long to get going and Act 3 just completely kills the pacing, and the ending didn't land for me at all. Still, the writing is so good that I really can't give it a lower score than this. On the gameplay front, it's fine but could've benefitted from QoL improvements like a better map and fast travel.

31. I Am Setsuna (PS5) | Mar 3rd - 15hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3.5/5 | So many parts of this are objectively bad but I can't bring myself to hate it. it just oozes charm and has so much heart that it's easy to look past its faults.

32. Minecraft Dungeons (PS5) | Mar 11th - 15hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3/5 | The most "it's fine" game I've ever played. Insanely unmemorable in every single way imaginable but it was fun to play through.

33. Resident Evil 0 (PS5) | Mar 13th - 17hrs [Replay - 100%] | 2.5/5 | Hands down the worst mainline Resident Evil game and it isn't even close for me. It looks absolutely gorgeous thanks to the pre-rendered backgrounds, but that's about it. The story is a mess, the characters are annoying, the level design is bland, and the inventory management is frustrating due to the character swap mechanic. Just...a complete failure on so many levels.

34. Resident Evil (2002) (PS5) | Mar 15th - 15hrs [Replay - 100%] | 5/5 | Unequivocally one of the best games of all time. Don't really know what else to say that hasn't already been said, it's a bonafide masterpiece.

35. Resident Evil 2 (2019) (PS5) | Mar 16th - 15hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4.5/5 | Still incredible. The chunk of the game set in the RPD is probably my favorite chunk of Resident Evil ever. It does falter a little bit after that, but it's still incredibly solid all the way through until the bad final boss (which is a series staple at this point if I'm being honest).

36. Resident Evil 3 (2020) (PS5) | Mar 17th - 10hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3.5/5 | Playing this back-to-back with RE2R is really rough, even if I liked my time with it more than I did when I first played it. I initially really disliked the brief runtime but after playing through RE2R six or seven times in a row for the platinum, this felt like a breath of fresh air. The game's still a bit of e letdown, though, and I found myself straight up laughing during the Nemesis chase segments because there's like, zero tension.

37. Resident Evil 5 (PS5) | Mar 20th - 16hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3/5 | A hot mess in so many ways (and not the fun kind of hot mess) but it's still ultimately an enjoyable experience, I just wish it weren't so aggressively ugly. It also has the worst story of all the mainline games, but the bar is literally nonexistent for that when to comes to RE so it's not that big of a deal. Bonus points for Sheva (free my girl Capcom!)

38. Resident Evil 6 (PS5) | Mar 23rd - 19hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3/5 | One of the most batshit insane games I've ever played. A hot mess in so many ways (the good kind of hot mess), but I can't help but like it. It's also campier than a John Waters movie, and I'm supposed to hate it? fuck off. This was a (mostly) good time.

39. Resident Evil 4 Remake (PS5) | Mar 30th - 33hrs | 4/5 | Not as good as REmake or RE2R, but unlike RE3R, it has more to do with me not being a huge fan of RE4 than the game itself. It's gorgeous, fun, streamlined, well-designed, etc. but it's still Resident Evil 4. I do appreciate the effort they put into making the game more enjoyable though, like completely revamping Ashley (both character wise and gameplay wise).

40. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (PS5) | Mar 31st - 12hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4.5/5 | Still every bit as good as it was in 2017. Probably one of my favorite franchise soft reboots ever? Perfectly understands what made the first few Resident Evil games so special and build upon them in excellent ways. It also has a killer theme song, so that's a plus.

41. Resident Evil Village (PS5) | Apr 4th - 26hrs | 4/5 [Replay - 100%] | A rollercoaster ride, for both better and worse. An adrenaline rush of game, but ultimately wildly disjointed and uneven. They threw everything at the wall and unfortunately, not all of it stuck. Still a great time overall though!

42. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PS5) | Apr 13th - 65hrs | 3.5/5 | I want to start off by praising the game for how beginner friendly it is in its current form. I haven't played many MMOs (or online/multiplayer games in general) so I was dreading starting this, but I was pleasantly surprised by how the game eases you in. Not a single part of my experience with ARR felt overwhelming or too complicated to handle. Have social anxiety or still unsure of your skills to go into a dungeon with real people? Use Duty Support. Unsure or can't remember which move comes next in your combo? You get a nifty outline on the next move(s) in your combo. Still new and are afraid/embarrassed to tell people? It's all good, there's a little icon next to your name that tells people all they need to know. Can't remember how to do your job properly? You can replay the tutorials as many times as you want. There are more examples but you get the idea. I'm still shocked at how comfortable I am playing this game.

ARR's story is, for the most part, non-existent. It is an aggravatingly slow lore dump with some extremely questionable voice acting that only gets going in its final five hours. My fake PS5 cursor hovered over the "skip cutscene" window more times than I could count. I never used it, but I'm a "if the story's good then fuck everything else" type of gamer so the fact that I even considered skipping some of them should tell you a lot. I've yet to see if all of the information that has been shoved down my throat is worth it (like many say it is), but as it stands right now…it's really rough. This isn't helped by the insanely bland quest design (I'm the Warrior of Light, why the hell am I delivering uniforms to people, Alphinaud??) but I'm not sure if that's an MMO problem or specifically a FFXIV: ARR problem.

Why did I keep playing, then? Well, for one, I initially started playing this for trophy purposes only and I was going to get that platinum whether I liked it or not. The second and more significant reason is that I think Square Enix put all sorts of crack in the gameplay loop. The game kind of slowly took over my life in a genuinely scary way. When I wasn't playing FFXIV, it's all I could think about. In fact, I'm thinking about playing it right now. The combat's fun, the exploration is wonderful and the music is great, but those things have never made me this addicted to something. I have no idea why I'm as hooked as I am.

…and that's that. This review feels incomplete because my journey with FFXIV is incomplete. I initially started playing this with the intention of jumping off after beating ARR, but now I think I'm going to see the whole thing through (or at least until I get bored). The fact that I not only enjoyed playing but am addicted to an MMO, a genre that I'm usually allergic to, is fascinating to me.

43. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Awoken (PS5) | April 14th - 4hrs | 2.5/5 | This could've been an email. A complete yawnfest, unfortunately. The trial was nice, though.

44. Final Fantasy XIV: Through the Maelstrom (PS5) | April 16th - 4hrs | 3.5/5 | What's that? ACTUAL storytelling?? In MY Final Fantasy XIV???

Probably the best chunk of the game so far. A strong introduction to Yuguri (I have no idea how big her role is going to be moving forward) and you can tell there are a lot of seeds being planted for future stories. It's also where the improved voice acting and cutscene direction really kicks in. If this is a sign of things to come, then I'm really excited.

45. Final Fantasy XIV: Defenders of Eorzea (PS5) | April 17th - 5hrs | 3/5 | The first and second halves of this felt completely disconnected to the point where it gave me whiplash, but it was still engaging nonetheless. If it had been paced a little better, it would've probably been the best chunk so far.

46. Final Fantasy XIV: Dreams of Ice (PS5) | April 17th - 5hrs | 3.5/5 | Story finally starts picking up for real in this one, and the music during the trial was absolutely insane.

47. Final Fantasy XIV: Before the Fall (PS5) | April 19th - 6hrs | 4/5 | Great story development and and absolutely killer ending. This is the Final Fantasy XIV everyone's talking about! The only thing I disliked about this was the forced crystal tower alliance raid. It completely killed the pacing.

48. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (PS5) | April 26th - 40hrs | 3.5/5 | I didn't like this as much as everyone seemingly does, unfortunately. Apparently there's some really good stuff in the patches but the base expansion is only a tad better than ARR in my opinion. Starts off okay, gets amazing around the middle and kind of crashes and burns toward the end. Still, the characters are a major improvement (Ysayle and Estinien are fantastic) and as always, the music is absolutely incredible.

49. Final Fantasy XIV: As Goes Light, So Goes Darkness (PS5) | April 27th - 2hrs | 2.5/5 | An absolute nothingburger of a patch. That's two underwhelming x.1 patches in a row, I hope it isn't a trend moving forward.

50. Final Fantasy XIV: The Gears of Change (PS5) | April 28th - 4hrs | 3.5/5 | Surprisingly hefty patch! Really cool dungeon and great story developments. This really should've been 3.1, or at least some of what's here should've been put into that.

51. Final Fantasy XIV: Revenge of the Horde (PS5) | April 28th - 3hrs | 4/5 | As good as everyone said it was! Solid dungeon and absolutely killer trial. Music was a real highlight in this one. All in all, Heavensward's story was a bit disappointing especially after all the praise I've heard about it, but it ended on a really high note.

52. Final Fantasy XIV: Soul Surrender (PS5) | April 29th - 4hrs | 3.5/5 | Some of the most interesting plot beats in the entire game are in this patch, to the point where I can't help but feel frustrated that I won't be able to really get to see the rest of it unfold for a while. I'm supposed to be getting excited about Stormblood at this point in the story, not Shadowbringers.

53. Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected (Switch) | May 5th - 15hrs | 3.5/5 | Not as in love with this as much as everyone else is, unfortunately. The new cast is probably my least favorite in the series (and I'm not a fan of XBC2's cast at all), which is a shame since XBC3 probably has the strongest one, N is still a one dimensional cardboard cutout of a character, and the story, while ending on a high note, feels like it has gotten too convoluted for its own good. Still, I can't say that all the fanservice didn't get to me. The final hour of the DLC is amazing, I just wish the rest of it was as good. Also, I have no idea why, but this was way worse than XBC3 in terms of performance. the frame rate was all over the place and the image quailty was just absolutely tragic.

54. Final Fantasy XIV: The Far Edge of Fate (PS5) | May 8th - 4hrs | 4/5 | Started off slow but the back half of it is insanely good. Still not too terribly excited for Stormblood though. it didn't really do anything for me on that front.

55. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch) | May 13th - 60hrs | 4/5 | Out of the 29.8 million people (fresh stat from Google) that have bought and played Breath of the Wild, I might be in the top 5% of people in terms of just how much I dislike it. I think it's an okay game, but I *despise* it. I feel like Nintendo took Kylo Ren's advice a bit too seriously and completely blew up everything I loved about the franchise, gutting everything fantastic like some of the excellent level and visual design found in the dungeons to the timeless music in favor of "look, if you burn the grass it creates an updraft!!!" and music that sounds like someone accidentally sat on a piano aside from a few cases. I get that it "redefined how you can approach exploration in video games" and [INSERT IMPRESSIVE SOUNDING PHRASE HERE] but that meant nothing to me because that wasn't what I was looking for. I just wanted a 3D Zelda game and as a traditional 3D Zelda game, Breath of the Wild was absolutely joyless and devoid of soul in my opinion. I still remember how crushingly disappointing the divine beasts, the very thing that was put in the game to "please traditional 3D Zelda fans," were to this day.

Tears of the Kingdom does a decent amount of work to alleviate that feeling, but part of why I enjoyed it a bit more is because I accepted that 3D Zelda is never coming back. I will never feel the same type of wonder I felt while exploring the Ancient Cistern I felt again, not from a Zelda game at least, and that's okay because going forward, 3D Zelda games are going for a different type of wonder that does nothing for me but checks other people's boxes.

That's not to say I like it more just because of that, though. Not at all. The big one is that yes, Tears of the Kingdom has dungeons. In actuality they're """dungeons,""" nowhere near as elaborate or as good as the ones found in traditional 3D Zelda titles in general but much better than the divine beasts. They're themed, have puzzles you can't break, have central gimmicks that aren't boring or annoying and have actual boss fights at the end of them. There's actually a good story this time around as well. Most it is, frustratingly, told through flashbacks again but the way they tie them into the present day events is actually very, very smart. Just like BOTW, most of the flashbacks are optional but they are much, much easier and a lot more fun to find. Shrines also make a return and they're basically the same, but the puzzles are a lot more creative by virtue of the new toolset.

The new tools are honestly pretty incredible. Ultrahand alone is more impressive than the entirety of BOTW's mostly boring toolset, and Fuse is also mindblowing at times. Recall and Ascend are mostly situational and are just there for the most part, but they're still impressive. I constantly forgot about Ascend though, but that's probably just a me thing.

The open world is mostly the same, but feels a lot more…intentional this time around for lack of a better term. There's a sense of direction there that simply wasn't in BOTW and it makes it feel a lot more well designed. It might be due to the addition of the sky islands (which are pretty great) as well as other areas, but I honestly can't really put my finger on it. It felt like there was a lot more to do this time around as well, as I was constantly stumbling upon caves and the like.

Most of my issues with the game are unfortunately carryovers from BOTW. The weapon durability system is still frustrating and the fuse function doesn't go a long way to help with it, the music is once again mostly ambient/nonexistent aside from key story moments, the horse controls are still really weird and traversal in general isn't as fun as it can be, and the combat just doesn't feel as fun or snappy as it does in the older titles. The English voice acting is once again not the greatest and genuinely dampens some otherwise great story moments, which is really disappointing. An issue that's unique to this game is that there seemed to be a larger focus on resource gathering this time around which led to some infuriating moments here and there, especially when it came to bombs. TOTK fixes a lot of what was bad about BOTW, but there's still plenty of glaring issues that were just not touched on at all.

As a traditional 3D Zelda superfan, BOTW left me absolutely hopeless, so much so that it knocked the franchise out my top 10 and down to…God knows where. TOTK, on the other hand, has given me hope. It's just a small glimmer but maybe, just maybe, Nintendo could merge the best parts of those games and with modern 3D Zelda successfully. I couldn't see it before but I can see it now. We're not there yet and we won't be there for a very, very long time, and it's going to take a lot of refinement and a few games until we potentially get there but…maybe it's all going to be alright.

56. Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (PS5) | May 18th - 35hrs | 3/5 | Man, I don't really know what happened here. FFXIV has been on an upwards trajectory up until this point, but Stormblood has killed all of the momentum for me.

Gameplay wise, Stormblood is A+. It has some of the best areas, dungeons, bosses and even music. They really killed it in that aspect and it absolutely carried an otherwise incredibly middling expansion. The story is a snoozefest at best and a hot mess at worst. Not going to get too deep into it because of spoilers, but it was disappointing especially after a relatively good stretch of storytelling.

I've sat on it a bit and I can confidently say that I dislike this even more than A Realm Reborn, which is shocking to me.

57. Final Fantasy XIV: The Legend Returns (PS5) | May 18th - 2.5hrs | 2.5/5 | Decent dungeon, but as with all of the other x.1 patches, it's a nothingburger. It's even worse this time around because it's a Stormblood nothingburger.

58. Final Fantasy XIV: Rise of a New Sun (PS5) | May 18th - 2.5hrs | 2.5/5 | Still not vibing with anything Stormblood related. I'm honestly not sure if this was any good or not because I genuinely just cannot bring myself to care about any of what's happening.

59. Final Fantasy XIV: Under the Moonlight (PS5) | May 19th - 2hrs | 3/5 | I'm shocked at how much of a complete, utter flop this entire Stormblood arc has been for me. Great boss, but I'm so glad it's over. The final few minutes of this expansion were more interesting than anything that happened the last 35 hours.

60. Final Fantasy XIV: Prelude in Violet (PS5) | May 20th - 3hrs | 3.5/5 | Back to our regularly scheduled programming! I'm finally into the story again, and all the Shadowbringers setup is really interesting.

61. Final Fantasy XIV: A Requiem for Heroes (PS5) | May 20th - 3hrs | 4/5 | What a banger of a patch. Probably has one of my favorite sequences in the entire game so far, which is pretty nice considering I started losing faith in the story during Stormblood.

62. Final Fantasy: Pixel Remaster (PS5) | May 23rd - 9.5hrs [100%] | 3/5 | Pretty basic, but holds up better than I expected (with the QoL improvements in the Pixel Remaster, of course). The encounter rate is absolutely unhinged though.

63. Final Fantasy II: Pixel Remaster (PS5) | May 24th - 13hrs [100%] | 3/5 | A massive leap in storytelling, but a step back in...pretty much everything else. The new leveling system is unique and I can appreciate it even if it didn't work for me, but the dungeon design is horrendous and the encounter rate is even more unhinged than the first game's. Still, for what is regarded as the worst mainline Final Fantasy game, it's not bad at all.

64. Final Fantasy III: Pixel Remaster (PS5) | May 26th - 16hrs [100%] | 3.5/5 | The best NES Final Fantasy and it's not even particularly close. The combat feels more refined, the job system is a lot deeper than the one in FF1, the music is even better and the areas are a lot more varied. It's disappointing that it's a step back in terms of story (which I still don't fully understand because it's told so poorly) and characters, though.

65. Final Fantasy IV: Pixel Remaster (PS5) | May 29th - 28hrs [100%] | 4/5 | This is where Final Fantasy truly begins. Major focus on story, big ensemble cast, crazy music, wildly varied areas, cutting edge visuals (at the time), ATB, and more. The jump in quality between I-III and IV is absolutely mind-boggling, and playing them back-to-back only enhances it. Yes, the story goes off the rails by the end and the 20 fakeouts are pretty annoying, but man is it nice to see a franchise figure out what it truly wants to be moving forward.

66. Unheard - Voices of Crimes (Deck) | May 31st - 4hrs | 2.5/5 | This was alright. There are some really good ideas here and the mechanics are actually pretty engaging, but the whole thing is brought down by some horrendous English voice acting (why do 90% of the guys sound like Ghostface??), occasionally weird writing and a disappointing ending. It's definitely no Obra Dinn/Golden Idol.

67. Ravenlok (XSX) | June 2nd - 3hrs | 2.5/5 | Oh man, this was...not good. Echo Generation was not without its issues, but it was infinitely more interesting and charming than this. Gorgeous visuals and art direction, but everything else is just so...blah.

68. Final Fantasy V: Pixel Remaster (PS5) | Jun 3rd - 45hrs [100%] | 3/5 | FFV easily has some of the best gameplay in the entire franchise but unfortunately some of the worst...everything else. In pretty much every single way other than gameplay, it feels like a regression for the franchise after 4, especially in the story and characters area. I've heard described as a "fun romp" by multiple people, but I found it to be a mostly joyless experience. There are also way too many dungeons. Like, way too many.

69. Blanc (Deck) | Jun 7th - 2hrs | 3.5/5 | This was a cute little platformer! Relatively simple gameplay but absolutely gorgeous art direction. The mechanic introduced in the back half of the game led to a lot of frustration and kinda dragged the game down a little though unfortunately.

70. Tron: Identity (Deck) | Jun 7th - 2hrs | 3.5/5 | Pretty good experience overall, but it's nowhere near as good as the two Circular games. The writing is still sharp, the music is still moody and the visuals are still gorgeous but it didn't hit quite the same as those two. Could be that it's because I'm not super familiar with the source material, though. Ending on a cliffhanger was also not the right move, especially since a sequel has probably not been greenlit yet.

71. Planet of Lana (XSX) | Jun 8th - 4hrs | 2.5/5 | Really wanted to like this more than I did. It's beautiful (though not as visually striking as something like INSIDE) and very clearly made with a lot of love, it's just a bit of a chore to play. Gameplay has never been the strongest suit for these types of games, so they combat it by usually having absolutely killer pacing. Planet of Lana, unfortunately, does not. It took me around 4 hours to beat and I felt every single second of it.

Mui is amazing though. two and a half stars for Mui.

72. Final Fantasy VI: Pixel Pixel Remaster (PS5) | Jun 14th - 40hrs [100%] | 4/5 | [INFLAMMATORY COMMENT ABOUT THIS GAME NOT BEING A MASTERPIECE]

Seriously though, FFVI is an incredibly ambitious game to a fault. It has a solid story, cool villain, fantastic music and some really great characters, but it's also insanely flawed. There are way too many characters, and the second half of the game, World of Ruin, is a cool concept on paper, but the execution is kinda wild and the game kind of completely falls apart when you get to it. But, again, it's hard not to admire the ambition of it all even if all of it doesn't land.

It's a great SNES RPG, probably one of the best, but it's no Chrono Trigger.

73. Final Fantasy VII (PS5) | Jun 16th - 25hrs [Replay - 100%] | 5/5 | God, I hate to be a basic bitch but this is probably the best one, right? I'm not going to pretend even for a second that my love for FFVII Remake didn't in turn make me love this game even more, but this is my first time revisiting it after Remake and yeah, it's still fucking amazing. Weird visuals and some wonky dialogue aside, it's still absolutely enchanting. Great world, fantastic characters, incredible music and solid gameplay. It's still incredibly easy to see why this game is regarded as one of the best games of all time, because it is.

74. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (PS5) | Jun 26th - 35hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3.5/5 | I genuinely have no idea what to say or where to even start so I'm not going to attempt to do that. I had fun, but this was....???

75. Final Fantasy IX (PS5) | Jun 29th - 35hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4/5 | I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say that this is probably the most charming game ever made. It's not perfect, mostly due to the fact that it's absolutely infuriating to play at times because everything is just so slow, but it's so magical in so many different ways. It suffers from many issues that plague some other Final Fantasy games (like the second half not being as good as the first, some characters getting the shit end of the stick) but man...the charm of it all.

76. Final Fantasy X HD Remaster (PS5) | July 4th - 45hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3.5/5 | Hot take: out of all the Final Fantasy games, this game and X-2 have aged the worst. They're essentially PS1 games that don't look like PS1 games, so it kind of messes with your brain a little. The highs are still high (Yuna's sending scene, the underwater date, the ending etc.) but the game has plenty of issues. The voice acting is awful, the pacing is weird, the writing isn't the best and it overall just feels really, really janky. I'm gonna be honest and say if it weren't for the nostalgia goggles I'm wearing at the moment, I'd probably rate this a little lower.

77. Final Fantasy X-2 HD Remaster (PS5) | July 9th - 30hrs [Replay] | 1.5/5 | Such a hot mess in so many ways that it's almost inconceivable. The story is terrible, the music is mediocre, the pacing is awful, the performances are horrible, the writing is disastrous and the structure of the game is mind-bogglingly bad. The one and a half stars are for the wonderful combat system and what little I enjoyed of the camp this game has in droves.

I've been doing a series replay and have been platinuming all the games as I go and will continue to do so, but I'm not platinuming this one. Not because the platinum is hard (FFIX and FFX were much tougher), but because I don't feel like playing more of this game. This is by far the worst mainline Final Fantasy game and it's not even particularly close, and it's definitely the poster child of games I tolerated as a child but can't stand now.

78. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS5) | July 14th - 37hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4/5 | Great-but-badly-told story and underwhelming cast aside, this is pretty great. It's wild to me that a PS2 game still has some of the best presentation in the series (and I say this not as a knock against everything that came after, but to praise just how impressive this game truly is). Gameplay-wise, I mean...the Gambit system has had its praises (rightfully) sung, so I don't have much to add there. If there's one huge issue with this game, it's that it's needlessly large. Thankfully the speed-up options in this remaster help alleviate some of the issues that come with that, but it shouldn't be a necessity.

79. Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) | July 19th - 45hrs [Replay - 100%] | 4/5 | Not even going to pretend for a second that I can have a remotely unbiased take on this game. I fucking love Final Fantasy XIII. Some of it is because of nostalgia, but what this replay made me realize is that a lot of it is because it's a great fucking game. the story (which isn't complicated at all and doesn't require you to even touch the datalog btw) is great, the cast is really strong (including Hope, who's unlikable but not a bad character by any means), the music is absolutely wonderful, and the combat system is one of the best in the franchise. I will concede that yes, you do "run in a straight line" for most of the game, but I honestly can't say it bothers me, especially when the rest of the game is THIS good. It's hard for me to care about any of that when the sound of Leona Lewis humming elicits the emotions it does in me.

Final Fantasy XIII isn't my favorite Final Fantasy game nor is it the best one in the franchise, but it's the one I love the most. If that doesn't make any sense, so be it.

80. Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3) | July 23rd - 35hrs [Replay - 100%] | 3/5 | A resounding meh. The story's a mess and the protagonists are blah, but the combat system is still fantastic (albeit with unnecessary additions) and the structure of the game is genuinely really, really cool for the most part. It's a competent game but not a lot else. Definitely the worst of the trilogy by a large margin.

81. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (Deck) | July 25th - 7hrs | 3.5/5 | Pretty cool little visual novel! Starts off REALLY strong and sadly loses steam as it goes on, but I still had a pretty great time with it. the short runtime is one of the best things about it, there's really no filler in it at all. My only real big issue with it was the music. What's there is great, but the game feels like it has 5 tracks.

82. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) | July 29th - 31hrs [100%] | 3.5/5 | DO NOT ORDER MAJORA'S MASK FROM SHEIN!!!

For real though, what a fascinating game. The core concept is very strong and while the execution is faulty at times, it still works. it very clearly had a budget of $2 and 5 weeks of development time though, and you feel it in every single facet of this game. Still, the melancholy of the game kinda sucks you in. This is probably the saddest Final Fantasy game they've made. If not, then it's up there for sure. And of course, as with the rest of the trilogy, the combat system is absolutely incredible.

I've always loved Final Fantasy XIII, but I don't think I realized just how much it meant to me until I replayed the trilogy. The ending got me really badly.

83. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (PS5) | August 5th - 40hrs | 4/5 | The best expansion so far by a mile. Not that the bar was ridiculously high, mind you, as I thought Heavensward was good but extremely flawed and thought Stormblood was aggressively mediocre. Still, it's something worth noting and celebrating.

It starts off immensely strong and ends even stronger (the final few hours of the expansion are unequivocally the best content they've made so far) but just like the previous expansions and ARR, the middle part really drags. I also can't help but feel a little disappointed at them not using the setting to its full potential. You have this really cool fairytail-esque setting and this is what you do with it? Don't get me wrong, what they do with it is cool, but why stop there when you can do so much more?

Still, gripes aside, ShB has the best music, best dungeons, best story and the best villain, so I'm generally impressed with what they've manage to accomplish. Here's hoping Endwalker fixes the pacing issues (as hard as it may be) and wraps everything up neatly.

84. Final Fantasy XIV: Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty (PS5) | August 5th - 4hrs | 2.5/5 | It's an x.1 patch, mediocrity comes with the territory. Yawn.

85. Final Fantasy XV (PS5) | August 7th - 35hrs [Replay - 100%] | 2/5 | I was genuinely excited to give Final Fantasy XV another shot. I had disliked it when I first played it, but I'll admit that a lot of that dislike came from years and years of following Versus XIII and being disappointed that the game was not what I wanted it to be (or what it appeared to be for all those years). That's not to say I didn't have issues with the game itself, but it would be foolish to think that watching the Versus XIII trailers for all of those years and kind of falling in love with the world through them wasn't clouding my judgement and affecting my opinion of FFXV negatively, because it is not that game and it will never be.

That's what I thought, at least, before replaying it and realizing that my judgement was in fact clouded, but it had the opposite effect. Even though I disliked it, it turns out that I was actually cutting the game a lot of slack because I was still so in love with the idea of it.

Final Fantasy XV is a failure. It's an absolute failure in every sense of the word. It has a horrible, chopped-up story that completely fails on all levels, a sad excuse of a combat system, genuinely horrible world design that feels bad to explore due to gameplay systems and design choices that feel like they're there to punish you for trying to extract some sort of fun out of this mess, visuals that look straight out of one of those "Nintendo hire this man!" videos (the Leviathan sequence is genuinely laughable), mediocre characters that are horribly voice-acted, and writing that's just completely embarrassing. It miraculously has a strong ending, but it does nothing to soften the blow of everything that came before it.

I've never played the DLCs and I won't do it now because this game does not deserve any more of my time and attention. I only hope that Yoko Shimomura gets another shot at composing the music for another mainline Final Fantasy game because her wonderful music is wasted on this heaping pile of shit.

86. Final Fantasy XIV: Echoes of a Fallen Star (PS5) | August 8th - 4hrs | 3.5/5 | Cool dungeon + interesting lore reveals + strong ending = great patch!

87. Final Fantasy XIV: Reflections in Crystal (PS5) | August 10th - 4hrs | 4/5 | One of the game's best patches yet and a fantastic send-off to a great expansion. Endwalker has a lot to live up to.

88. Final Fantasy XIV: Futures Rewritten (PS5) | August 10th - 4hrs | 3/5 | It's fine, I don't know. x.4 patches are always hit-or-miss and this was just kinda okay.

89. Final Fantasy XIV: Death Unto Dawn (PS5) | August 10th - 4hrs | 3.5/5 | Better than 5.4 but not by much. Not feeling the villains at all which is a bit of a shame after Emet-Selch but it is what it is.

90. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (PS5) | August 17th - 21hrs [100%] | 3/5 | This game's a giant fucking joke but I feel like the devs are in on it which makes it fun. Gameplay-wise, it's a lot like Team Ninja's other soulslike games, which means it's nowhere near as good as some of From's output but still pretty addicting. It's also a little more streamlined than Nioh. There's no equivalent to the (very annoying) Ki system here.

91. Final Fantasy XVI (PS5) | August 24th - 60hrs [100%] | 3.5/5 | This is a good™ game. The story's good™, the characters are good™, the gameplay is good™ and the music is good™. After XV, a competently made video game like this one feels like a miracle but there's...nothing really special about it. Nothing really stands out, it's just good™.

The story starts off really well but kinda falls apart in the second half, the characters are well-written but I kinda struggled to get attached to any of them, the gameplay's good but gets old very quickly because the game is incredibly easy and doesn't really ask you to get into the nitty-gritty of the combat system. It also gets old because the game goes on for way too long. Not unusual for a Final Fantasy game, but there's a reason character action games (like DMC and Bayonetta which this game is trying to emulate, not action RPGs like NieR and Kingdom Hearts) only last about 10-15 hours. The music is great but sadly largely unmemorable outside of the banger battle and boss themes.

I don't know. I played it and had fun, but I'm not going to remember anything from it in two weeks, which is a bummer becuase it's an entry in one of my favorite franchises ever. Still, it's a lot better than XV and that's something worth celebrating.

92. Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition (PS5) | August 27th - 22hrs [100%] | 4/5 | It's genuinely shocking just how much Gearbox got right the first time around. The level design is a little lacking, the comedy is hit-or-miss, the visuals are dated (still easy on eyes though) and the story is…there but the gameplay loop is absolutely addicting and the gunplay, while not as refined as BL2 & 3's, still feels absolutely incredible. They nailed it where it mattered the most for this type of game and it's genuinely still very impressive.

93. Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned (PS5) | August 28th - 2.5hrs [100%] | 3/5 | BL1's DLC expansions are nowhere near as good as BL2's and 3's so it's hard to judge these having seen the true potential of what Gearbox can offer with these expansions. That being said, Zombie Island is a good first effort. It's incredibly short, but it introduces a new area that's visually more interesting than anything else in the game up until this point and the main story is campy fun. Largely unmemorable, but a fun ride nonetheless.

94. Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot (PS5) | August 29th - 10.5hrs [100%] | 1/5 | An absolutely abysmal, low effort piece of content that's made even worse in the remaster because it introduces crashes. Not only is having to fight enemies for THREE CONTINUOUS HOURS in the same map, and then having to that THREE TIMES not fun, it's also a complete waste of time and energy. This is the worst thing Gearbox has ever put out, and that's including Aliens, Battleborn and their Duke Nukem games.

95. Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx (PS5) | August 30th - 4hrs [100%] | 2.5/5 | Aggressively mediocre. Ends with a bang, but the journey there is unmemorable at best and annoying at worst. I finished it a few days ago and I can barely remember anything about it.

96. Borderlands: Claptrap's New Robot Revolution (PS5) | August 31st - 4hrs [100%] | 2.5/5 | Probably the worst "final DLC" in the franchise. Not bad but, again, just unmemorable. Marginally better than Knoxx, but not by much. It's sad to see the OG Borderlands go out on a whimper like this.

97. Borderlands 2 (PS5) | September 5th - 40 Hours [Replay - 100%] | 4.5/5 | I mean, what can I say that hasn't already been said? There's a reason this game's as popular as it is. Great story, fantastic villain, funny writing (I love all the meme shit sorry, and now that they've aged it's more endearing than cringey imo), cool environments and a gameplay loop that is so addicting you'd think they put some sort of crack in it. Still every bit as good as it was in 2012.

98. Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty (PS5) | September 7th - 5 Hours [Replay - 100%] | 4/5 | Already better than all of BL1's DLCs combined. Scarlett's a fun character, the pirate setting is genuinely really cool, the new areas are fun to traverse (mostly due to the Sandskiff) and the fights are well-designed.

99. Borderlands 2: Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage (PS5) | September 9th - 4 Hours [Replay - 100%] | 2.5/5 | A lot of people love this one but I don't because I can't fucking stand Torgue.

100. Borderlands 2: Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt (PS5) | September 10th - 4 Hours [Replay - 100%] | 2.5/5 | Probably the weakest DLC of the bunch. I love Hammerlock, but this DLC barely feels like it has anything to do with him so it just comes off like they slapped his name on it at the end. It's Borderlands so it's still fun, but the areas are drab and the enemies are spongy. Out of all the DLCs in the franchise, this feels like the one they put the least amount of effort into (aside from Underdome from BL1)

101. Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep (PS5) | September 10th - 5 Hours [Replay - 100%] | 5/5 | Aside from The Last of Us: Left Behind and Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, this is my favorite piece of DLC ever released, and it still holds up extremely well. Insanely creative and fun with a genuinely emotional, heartfelt core. This is the gold standard when it comes to Borderlands DLCs.

102. Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary (PS5) | September 11th - 5 Hours [Replay - 100%] | 3.5/5 | The idea of releasing a piece of DLC this extensive so long after the last DLC drop FOR FREE (for a limited time) is so fucking cool that it kinda clouds my judgement a bit. Still, it's a pretty good chunk of content even though it ends up not mattering all that much in BL3.

103. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (PS5) | September 17th - 30 Hours [Replay - 100%] | 3.5/5 | I want to say that this is underrated because the highs are incredibly high and low gravity traversal/combat is probably the best new mechanic that was introduced in the franchise but the game has so many mediocre (and at times rushed) sections that drag the experience down. It's still Borderlands though which means it's still really fun.

104. World of Final Fantasy Maxima (PS5) | September 22nd - 30 Hours [Replay - 100%] | 3.5/5 | A genuinely really cool series celebration game. They story's kinda blah and the two main characters are a bit annoying, but the combat system is killer and the game absolutely nails all the fanservice. The constant difficulty spikes get annoying, though.

105. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (PS5) | September 28th - 35 Hours [Replay - 100%] | 5/5 | Still genuinely cannot believe this game came out as good as it did. It's not perfect (there are some egregious moments of padding here and there) but I'm genuinely impressed with just how much they managed to properly translate and improve upon. I'm not the most objective person on the planet when it comes to this game though, like three notes of Aerith's theme played in chapter two and I absolutely lost my mind over it.

106. Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission (PS5) | September 29th - 3.5 Hours | 3/5 | This was a bit disappointing. Yuffie's characterization is neat but the story doesn't get going until the second half of the second (and last) chapter, which is a huge no-no for something that only lasts about 3 hours or so. Gameplay's killer though, Yuffie plays a lot like an actually functioning Noctis and it's glorious.

Oh, and fuck the Fort Condor mini game.

107. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line (PS5) | October 1st - 40 Hours [100%] | 4/5 | It's Theatrhythm so it's a good time, I just wish the selection was a tad tighter. There's like 15 different versions of Battle on the Big Bridge in the game and 6 of them sound the same.

108. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel - Claptastic Voyage (PS5) | October 1st - 4 Hours | 3/5 | This is widely regarded as one of the best DLCs in the franchise and I will never, ever understand it. It's admittedly good story-wise, but it's way too visually samey for the most part and ends with two of the worst bosses in the series.

109. Tales from the Borderlands (PS5) | October 7th - 11hrs | 5/5 | Not only is it easily still the best Borderlands game, it's also one of Telltale's best. Incredible writing, fun characters, fantastic story...it absolutely excels at everything a story based game should excel at. I genuinely really miss this Telltale.

110. Borderlands 3 (PS5) | October 10th - 40hrs | 4/5 | It's such a shame that Borderlands 3's narrative is absolutely abysmal because gameplay-wise, this easily the best Borderlands game and it isn't even close. I've played very few games that are this addicting and this strong of a gameplay loop. It's just such a shame that's dragged down by some terrible writing.

111. Borderlands 3: Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot (PS5) | October 10th - 5hrs | 3/5 | A largely unmemorable DLC. The casino is a fun setting but it falls into the trap off looking too same-y and I never found Timothy to be a particularly interesting character so most of the story kinda fell flat for me.

112. Borderlands 3: Guns, Love and Tentacles (PS5) | October 11th - 5hrs | 4/5 | Wasn't super impressed with this DLC when I first played it when it came out but I've definitely found a new appreciation for it now. The lovecraftian setting is absolutely gorgeous and the story's genuinely really cute. It's probably my favorite piece of BL3 DLC.

113. Borderlands 3: Bounty of Blood (PS5) | October 12th - 5hrs | 3/5 | This is probably the most interesting piece of DLC in the entire franchise due to its serious tone. A good portion of it just doesn't land at all, but the vibes definitely makes it stand out Among the sea of Borderlands DLC. I don't love it, but I appreciate what it tried to do.

114. Borderlands 3: Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck (PS5) | October 12th - 3hrs | 2.5/5 | Disappointing is the only way I can describe this. A piece of DLC that takes place inside of a psycho's brain sounds like prime sign-me-up material, but they don't really do anything. Not only that, it's also insanely short to a puzzling degree. I think this was the first thing Gearbox made during the pandemic so it's understandable but it doesn't make it any less disappointing, especially since Borderlands 2's last piece of DLC (not counting Commander Lilith) is a high point for the franchise.

115. New Tales from the Borderlands (PS5) | October 18th - 20hrs | 2.5/5 | Nowhere near as bad as everyone made it out to be, it's just…aggressively mediocre to an almost insulting degree, especially when compared to the original. The worst thing a story based game can be is unmemorable, and that's exactly was New Tales from the Borderlands is. Also, the system that tracks which ending you get is completely broken and doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

116. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (PS5) | October 23rd - 25hrs | 3.5/5 | Aside from Tales from the Borderlands, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep is my favorite Borderlands thing ever, so the idea of that being turned into a full game sounded amazing. Sadly, what we got was anything but. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great game, but it fails to live up to the DLC is based on in every single way. The (relatively small) gameplay are alright, but they don't really do much with the setting which is unfortunate.

117. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5) | October 25th - 19hrs | 4/5 | Probably my least favorite Insomniac Spidey game, but this was still a great time. The gameplay is so much better than the other two games, especially the traversal, to the point where I can't really see myself going back to them. It plays like a fucking dream.

Where the game falters, unfortunately, is the story. Not only does the back half of the game feel rushed, the villains this time around just aren't exciting. Spider-Man 1 had a brand new take on the Sinister Six which was exciting and Miles Morales had Phin which is probably my favorite baddie in all of these games. Spider-Man 2 has Kraven, which they give a cool backstory and motive to but ultimately ends up being blah and Venom who I never really liked and his portrayal in this game doesn't really do much to change my mind. Without spoiling anything, none of the other villains in the game deliver either. I also have issues with both Peter and Miles' arcs in the game, but I can't talk about those without delving into spoilers. In general, the story is nowhere near bad but Miles Morales might've set the bar a little too high in that regard.

It also feels like Insomniac's least polished game to date as I had a total of five crashes and I can't remember the last time this happened to me with a big budget Playstation first party title.

All in all I really enjoyed my time with this, but I wish Insomniac left it in the oven just a little bit more because a few edits to the story here and there plus a couple of extra months of polishing could've turned this game from great to fantastic.

118. Unpacking (PS5) | October 25th - 2hrs | 3.5/5 | I find myself coming back to Unpacking time and time again. This is the third time I've played it so I don't really have anything else to add, it's just a really nice, relaxing game. The moment where you have to put your [THING] under your bed is still one of the most heartbreaking moments ever and I'm so serious.

119. Alan Wake Remastered (PS5) | October 28th - 10hrs | 3/5 | I really wish they tweaked the gameplay even just a little bit with the remaster because it's still janky as hell. The game has undeniable charm and it's incredibly frustrating that the gameplay holds it back so much. Can't wait to see what Remedy does with Alan Wake II though, because they really managed to build an intriguing world with this.

120. Control (PS5) | October 29th - 15hrs | 4.5/5 | This is maybe my 5th time playing this game and it's still just as good. Easily Remedy's best game and it's not even close. The setting, The Oldest House, completely dwarfs everything they've done before in terms of pure creativity. There's a moment that happens very early on that made it very apparent that the setting was something special. The idea of a "shifting" building sounds fantastic on paper, but gets a little worrisome when you start thinking about the execution. It's mind blowing to me that Remedy managed to perfect it on their first go-around.

That's not to say that The Oldest House is the only special thing about Control, because there's a lot to love here. The visuals, combat, music, narrative and performances are all spectacular, and the fact that all of that was achieved with an AA budget makes it all the more impressive. The Ashtray Maze is easily one of my favorite sequences…ever? and encompasses everything that's special about Control.

121. Control: The Foundation (PS5) | October 30th - 5hrs | 3/5 | I love how visually striking the new area is and the new abilities lead to some cool platforming sections, but the level design takes a major hit and the story feels entirely like setup for the next game. It's still more Control though, which is something I will always be grateful for.

122. Control: AWE (PS5) | October 30th - 5hrs | 2.5/5 | I love me some good fanservice and AWE delivers that in spades, but it ultimately feels like a giant teaser for Alan Wake II and Control 2 rather than a satisfying piece of content.

123. Storyteller (Deck) | November 1st - 1.5hrs | 3/5 | This was alright. The concept's pretty stellar but they barely do anything with it. There were way too many heartbreak and family related puzzles for example and not enough unique ones like the werewolf ones. Game's a fun time, but ultimately feels like like it had a lot of untapped potential.

124. Alan Wake II (PS5) | November 4th - 20hrs [100%] | 4.5/5 | An incredible, gripping, stunning experience start to finish and unequivocally one of the best sequels of all time. Takes everything good from Control and Alan Wake and just mashes it all together and the result is fucking fascinating. I typically find this level of "it's meta dude!" annoying, but Remedy managed to approach it with such an immense amount of care and subtlety that I can't help but adore it.

That's not to mention everything on the visuals and sound side of things including the visuals themselves, the cinematography, the excellent yet campy FMV implementation, the amazing sound design and just...the atmosphere of it all. This game looks and feels like an HBO show and that's one of the highest compliments I can give it.

if I had to criticize one thing, it'd be Saga's case board. There's nothing wrong with it per se, but I wish there was actual puzzle solving involved. The ending's also a tiny bit unsatisfactory, but Remedy's building this massive story across multiple franchises so it's not unexpected. On the technical side of things, I found the HDR implementation frustrating and there's one very nasty visual bug on PS5 that's apparently related to FSR, but it's only in one small area so it's no big deal.

Other than that, I'm honestly head over heels in love with this and can easily see this turning into a 5/5 with time. Control put Remedy on the map for me and this game shot them up my favorite devs list. I can't wait to see what's next from them.

125. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) | November 8th - 17hrs [100%] | 4/5 | Probably the best 2D Mario game since Yoshi's Island. Granted, the bar was in hell because "depressing" wouldn't even begin to describe the state 2D Mario was in but still, I give props when props are due and Super Mario Bros. Wonder manages to breathe new life into a series that has been absolutely stale since 1995.

The amount of creativity on display here is impressive. Not all wonder flower gimmicks were created equal (I'd even argue the game peaks on the second level in that regard) but it was always exciting to see just what would happen when you touched one even if the result was kinda disappointing. The badge system is also pretty interesting because most of the badges are kinda useless but I don't think I can play another 2D Mario without the parachute cap and the grappling vine badges. They completely change the pacing of the levels for the better.
The music is, sadly, quite forgettable. I can't really remember any of the tracks aside from a couple. I also found the visuals to be a bit eh. The new character models look great and a lot of the backgrounds are full of life but the game still kinda just looks like the New Super Mario Bros. games with a slightly prettier coat of paint on it. I also find it puzzling that a game this jam-packed with creativity still manages to have terrible boss battles.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is no Tropical Freeze or Rayman Legends. Quite frankly, it's not even DKC Returns or Rayman Origins. 2D Mario is still way behind, but Wonder has put it back on the right track. I wouldn't say I'm excited for the future of 2D Mario just yet, but I'm at least hopeful about it now.

126. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (PS5) | November 13th - 30hrs [100%] | 4/5 | absolutely adored Fallen Order and genuinely thought it was nigh miraculous that a Star Wars game that good was made under EA. It resonated with me quite a bit, and while Survivor didn't hit the same way, I still thought it was incredibly solid if a little disappointing in parts. Ultimately, I had the same problem with this game as I did with God of War Raganrok, which is that I really didn't like the direction they went in terms of area and world design. I still firmly believe that bigger isn't always better, and much prefer linear and tighter level design. Survivor, sadly, loses a lot of the tight level design Fallen Order had in favor of more open areas with a larger focus on exploration. What's there is good and there are moments where Survivor manages to recapture the tightness of Fallen Order's areas, but it's extremely lacking in that area in general. Aside from that, Survivor is just as good and even better in some areas. The combat still feels incredible, the music is great and the story is solid (though Trilla is infinitely more interesting than Dagan Gera). This game also introduces some platforming challenges that are genuinely exhilarating to play through.

There's very obviously going to be more and I'm genuinely excited for what's coming, but I do hope they go back to the way Fallen Order was desgined. If not, I hope the team at least manages to find a happy medium between the two.

127. Dodgeball Academia (PS5) | November 15th - 6hrs [100%] | 2.5/5 | Really wanted to love this more than I did. It's insanely charming, but the story is a bit of a borefest and the gameplay, while fun, gets old quickly. I do hope the team gives this another shot and makes a sequel because I genuinely love the idea of sport-based RPGs.

128. Lies of P (PS5) | November 20th - 40hrs [100%] | 4/5 | Probably one of the best Soulslikes I've ever played. It borrows HEAVILY from From's work, probably more than any other Soulslike I've ever played, but that's probably why it's so good and honestly, aside from one egregious example at the end of the game where it feels like a boss was lifted straight out of Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, it generally manages to put its own spin on things while also sticking closely to what has been proven to work. It's absolutely gorgeous, plays like a dream, and has wonderful music. It's definitely not perfect, though. The level design is good overall but there are a couple of meh/bad areas (Venigni Works, Barren Swamp and Relic of Trismegistus come to mind) and the obsession with two-phase boss fights got old very, very quickly. Still, it's an incredibly strong debut game from the team and I genuinely cannot wait to see what they do next.

129. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PS5) | November 25th - 5hrs [100%] | 3/5 | This was alright. A lot of Klonoa's charm comes from the visuals and the remake looks...a lot less charming to put it nicely, so all you're left with is the somewhat middling gameplay. Still, it has brisk pacing and it's generally still pretty fun. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

130. The Hex (Deck) | November 26th - 5hrs | 3.5/5 | I've already played Inscryption so I thought I had an idea of what to expect going into this but it still managed to surprise me. It's really rough around the edges (especially when it comes to visuals) and some of the sequences go on for too long like Rust's, but the core idea is so strong and creative that I can't help but give Mullins his flowers. Would love to see what this game would look and feel like with Inscryption's production values, because I genuinely think I'd prefer a more polished version of this over it.

131. Sea of Stars (PS5) | December 15th - 40hrs [100%] | 3.5/5 | I'm conflicted. On one hand I generally had fun with the game and there's a decent amount of stuff to like here, mainly the stunning visuals and the great music. On the other hand, the game kind of fails at being a turn based RPG in many ways that's kinda mind-boggling a little. The story and characters are...there, the combat, while fun, feels like it doesn't progress much so it feels like you're doing the same exact thing and using the same exact strategies for a long stretch of the runtime (each character only having three skills is an unhinged choice for a game this long), the runtime itself is just too long for what the game's trying to do and the story it's trying to tell...I don't know. None of it is necessarily bad, it's just...meh. The Messenger is one of my favorite indies of all time so perhaps my expectations were just a bit too high.

132. God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla (PS5) | December 15th - 5hrs [100%] | 3.5/5 | If you know me you know there's nothing I dislike more than a roguelite/like game, so when this was announced with a trailer that completely undersold what it was, I was planning to ignore it. I'm ultimately glad I didn't because yes, while it didn't really do anything for me gameplay-wise (wonderful combat aside), the story it tells was wonderful enough to keep me going. If anything, it made me wish that this was covered in the main game because it genuinely feels integral to Kratos' character. It helps that it was completely free and took a brief 5 hours to 100%.

133. Super Mario RPG (Switch) | December 18th - 10hrs | 4/5 | Just an absolutely wonderful time. I ultimately still prefer the SNES original due to its more unique aesthetic but this remake is still just as comforting. Fun, simple, short and sweet.

134. The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (PS5) | December 22nd - 5hrs | 3/5 | I had a vague idea of what the game was about going in and was kind of concerned because this specific subject was handled terribly in Deadly Premonition 2 but to my surprise, I thought the story was absolutely wonderful. Unfortunately, it's marred by bad voice acting and frustratingly slow gameplay. The idea behind the main mechanic of the game is neat but the execution is insanely clunky. The game's saving grace is that it's very short and ends right before things get too frustrating.

135. Metal: Hellsinger (PS5) | December 22nd - 7hrs [100%] | 3.5/5 | This was absolutely exhilarating and I say this as someone who isn't a fan of metal music. The bosses suck and the visuals are drab but man, when it clicks and you get into the rhythm...there's nothing else like it. I'd pay so much money for a game of this ilk but with pop music instead.

136. Grime (PS5) | December 27th - 20hrs [100%] | 4/5 | Wasn't really feeling it initially due to the art direction, but it grew on me as the game went on as did the gameplay. The focus on parrying had me concerned at the beginning as I'm usually a dodge/block type of person when it comes to Soulslikes and Metroidvanias, but the window is generous enough that it never felt frustrating and by the end of the game I wasn't even attacking enemies at all and instead relied on the damage the parry was doing because it was a lot more fun. This is, in general, is a surprisingly great Metroidvania with great bosses, fun traversal (when the full moveset is fully unlocked) and fantastic world design. The story kinda falls flat and the music is fine but largely unmemorable, but I think that's about all I dislike about the game? I'm genuinely surprised this flew under the radar. The sequel is definitely a day 1 purchase for me.

137. Grime: Colors of Rot (PS5) | December 27th - 3hrs | 3/5 | The Childbed is a great area design-wise (if a little underwhelming visually), the new bosses are great and the new abilities are some of the best in the entire game. I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed by the whole thing though, but it's free DLC and it's integrated into the main game pretty seamlessly so it's hard to complain.

138. Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (PS5) | December 28th - 6hrs [100%] | 4/5 | This has been on my radar for quite a while but after trying out Touhou Luna Nights and not liking it much I kinda started ignoring it thinking I'd feel the same way about it. I'm glad I picked this up on a whim because it's wonderful. solid pacing, tight controls, fun bosses, great level design and gorgeous visuals. The solidest of solid metroidvanias. Just don't let Konami see even a screenshot from this game because they'd want to sue and I don't blame them because holy shit does it look like a SOTN reskin.

139. Blasphemous (PS5) | December 31st - 15hrs [100%] | 3.5/5 | Still probably one of the most unique looking games I've ever played, if not the most unique. I just wish it was as confident in its structure as it was in its visual identity, because Blasphemous can't decide if it wants to be a Souls-like or a Metroidvania so it ends up doing both and unlike a game like Grime that manages to merge both genres successfully, Blasphemous stumbles and at times feels half-baked. The combat feels great, the bosses are solid, the visuals are gorgeous and the themes the story tackles are incredibly interesting, but some design decisions like the way the traversal "power ups" work are just baffling to me. There's a lot to love here, I just wish the whole thing came together a little better.

Spamlynguist · Jan 1, 2023

PAST CHALLENGES

2022: 43 games finished
2021: 52 games finished
2020: 121 games finished
2019: 120 games finished
2018: 83 games finished
2017: 63 games finished

JANUARY

1. Lunistice (Steam) | January 1st - 1.9 hours | ★★★★☆

2. Saints Row (Xbox 360) | January 3rd - N/A | ★★★☆☆

FEBRUARY

3. Assemble with Care (Steam) | February 10th - 1.6 hours | ★★★★☆

4. SpongeBob Squigglepants (3DS) | February 24th - 1.1 hours | ★★★☆☆

MARCH

5. Kirby's Dream Land (3DS Virtual Console) | March 10th - 0.7 hours | ★★☆☆☆

6. Trip World (3DS Virtual Console) | March 26th - 0.9 hours | ★★☆☆☆

APRIL

7. Hakosan (PSN) | April 29th - N/A | ★☆☆☆☆

MAY

8. Witch Rise (Steam) | April 3rd - 1.9 hours | ★★★☆☆

JUNE

9. Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess (PS Vita) | June 14th - N/A | ★☆☆☆☆

JULY

10. Bombshell Barista: Speed Dating (itch.io) | July 2nd - N/A | ★★★☆☆

AUGUST

11. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (3DS) | August 9th - N/A | ★☆☆☆☆

SEPTEMBER

Nothing!

OCTOBER

12. En Garde! (Steam) | October 15th - 5.0 hours | ★★★★☆

NOVEMBER

13. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (Steam) | November 5th - 6.2 hours | ★★★★☆

14. Aperture Desk Job (Steam Deck) | November 17th - 0.4 hours | ★★★☆☆

15. Half-Life: Uplink (Steam Deck) | November 17th - 0.7 hours | ★★★☆☆

DECEMBER

16. Cats Hidden in Paris (Steam Deck) | December 2nd - 0.2 hours | ★★☆☆☆

17. Cats Hidden in Paris: Extra Level (Steam Deck) | December 2nd - 0.1 hours | ★★☆☆☆

18. Cats Hidden in Jingle Jam (Steam Deck) | December 2nd - 0.2 hours | ★★☆☆☆

19. Lake (Steam Deck) | December 3rd - 7.6 hours | ★★★★☆

20. Venba (Steam Deck) | December 13th - 1.5 hours | ★★★☆☆

21. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5 Remote Play) | December 17th - N/A | ★★★★☆

22. Loud: My Road to Fame (Steam Deck) | December 21st - 1.7 hours | ★★★☆☆

22. Loud: My Trip to Japan (Steam Deck) | December 22nd - 0.5 hours | ★★★☆☆

24. Ryse: Son of Rome (Steam Deck) | December 26th - 5.6 hours | ★★☆☆☆

Theswweet · Jan 1, 2023

Maybe I'll update throughout the year, this time, instead of just all at the end? Edit: Nope lmao

#1 Minoria – Completed 1/2/2023 Steam Deck – 5 hours
#2 Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Completed 1/17/2023 PC – 32 hours
#3 Ghostrunner – Completed 1/30/2023 PC – 6 hours
#4 Forspoken – Completed 2/5/2023 PC – 16 hours
#5 Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line – Completed 2/15/2023 Switch – 13 hours
#6 Kirby: Return to Dreamland Deluxe – Completed 2/23/2023 Switch – 8 hours
#7 Kirby: Magolor Epilogue – Completed 2/23/2023 Switch – 4 hours
#8 Destiny 2: Lightfall – Completed 3/2/2023 PC – 20 hours
#9 Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan – Completed 3/13/2023 Steam Deck – 185 hours
#10 Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key – Completed 3/27/2023 PC – 75 hours
#11 The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog – Completed 4/1/2023 Steam Deck – 2 hours
#12 Cube Escape: Paradox – Chapter 1 – Completed 4/5/2023 PC – 1 hour
#13 Wild Hearts – Completed 4/14/2023 PC – 51 hours
#14 Monster Hunter Rise – Completed 4/17/2023 PS5 – 16 hours
#15 Star Wars: Jedi Survivor – Completed 4/23/2023 PC – 29 hours
#16 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Completed 5/15/2023 Switch – 80 hours
#17 Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 – Completed 5/29/2023 PC – 17 hours
#18 We Love Katamari Reroll – Completed 6/1/2023 PC – 5 hours
#19 Final Fantasy XVI – Completed 6/25/2023 PC – 63 hours
#20 Octopath Traveler II – Completed 6/28/2023 PC – 65 hours
#21 Exoprimal – Completed 7/20/2023 PC – 40 hours
#22 Remnant 2 – Completed 7/22/2023 PC – 18 hours
#23 Venba – Completed 7/31/2023 PC – 2 hours
#24 Pikmin 4 – Completed 8/2/2023 Switch – 16 hours
#25 Pikmin 4: Olimar's Shipwreck Tale – Completed 8/3/2023 Switch – 3 hours
#26 Sega Bass Fishing – Completed 8/5/2023 PC – 5 hours
#27 Starfield – Completed 8/29/2023 PC – 70 hours
#28 The Gunk – Completed 9/10/2023 PC – 4 hours
#29 Ys X: Nordics – Completed 10/10/2023 PS5 – 45 hours
#30 Cocoon – Completed 10/11/2023 PC – 4 hours
#31 Miracle Girls Festival – Completed 10/12/2023 Vita – 5 hours
#32 Lords of the Fallen – Completed 10/19/2023 PC – 32 hours
#33 Super Mario Wonder – Completed 10/21/2023 Switch – 15 hours
#34 Alan Wake II – Completed 10/29/2023 PC – 25 hours
#35 Jusant – Completed 10/31/2023 PC – 3 hours
#36 The Talos Principle II – Completed 11/7/2023 PC – 35 hours
#37 Risk of Rain Returns – Completed 11/8/2023 PC – 4 hours
#38 Persona 5: Tactica – Completed 11/12/2023 PC – 32 hours
#39 Super Mario RPG – Completed 11/20/2023 Switch – 12 hours
#40 Lovely Planet Arcade – Completed 11/24/2023 PC – 3 hours
#41 Final Fantasy VII: Remake Intergrade – Completed 11/29/2023 PC – 35 hours
#42 Final Fantasy VII: Remake Intergrade INTERMISSION – Completed 12/1/2023 PC – 5 hours
#43 Lunacid – Completed 12/9/2023 Steam Deck – 13 hours
#44 Pseudoregalia – Completed 12/9/2023 PC – 4 hours
#45 Pokemon Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero – Completed 12/15/2023 Switch – 20 hours
#46 Metroid Prime: Remastered – Completed 12/18/2023 Nintendo Switch – 11 hours
#47 Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed – Completed 12/22/2023 Nintendo Switch – 28 hours
#48 The Exit 8 – Completed 12/22/2023 PC – 1 hour
#49 Control – Completed 12/23/2023 PC – 14 hours
#50 Kowloon's Curse: Lost Resort – Completed 12/24/2023 PC – 3 hours
#51 Deemo: Reborn – Completed 12/24/2023 PC – 10 hours
#52 Bayonetta Origins: Cereza & the Lost Demon – Completed 12/27/2023 Switch – 16 hours

PC90 · Jan 1, 2023

2018: 66 Games
2019: 107 Games
2020: 52 Games
2021: 52 Games
2022: 62 Games

1) Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion (Steam - January 21st - 4/5)
2) The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (Steam - January 22nd - 3/5)
3) Super Stardust Portable (PS4 - January 31st - 2/5)
4) God of War III Remastered (PS4 - February 3rd - 3/5)
5) Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PS4 - February 5th - 4/5)
6) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS4 - February 15th - 4/5)
7) Dead Rising 3 (Steam - February 18th - 2/5)
8) Theatrhythm Final Bar Line (PS4 - March 7th - 4/5)
9) God of War: Ascension (PS3 - March 11th - 3/5)
10) Ape Escape (PS1 - March 17th - 2/5)
11) Resident Evil 4 (Remake) (Steam - April 3rd - 4/5)
12) River City Girls 2 (Steam - April 9th - 3/5)
13) inFamous Second Son (PS4 - April 23rd - 4/5)
14) Astro's Playroom (PS5 - April 30th - 4/5)
15) inFamous First Light (PS4 - May 3rd - 4/5)
16) Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5 - May 23rd - 4/5)
17) Boneraiser Minions (Steam - May 28th - 4/5)
18) Vampire Survivors: Tides of the Foscari (Steam - June 23rd - 5/5)
19) Choo Choo Survivor (Steam - July 15th - 3/5)
20) Nomad Survival (Steam - July 16th - 3/5)
21) 1942 (Steam - July 19th - 3/5)
22) Commando (Steam - July 24th - 2/5)
23) Section Z (Steam - July 29th - 3/5)
24) Aresu no Tsubasa (Steam - August 3rd - 3/5)
25) Brotato (Steam - August 8th - 4/5)
26) Until Dawn: Rush of Blood (PSVR - August 18th - 2/5)
27) Final Fantasy XVI (PS5 - August 20th - 4/5)
28) The Inpatient (PSVR - August 21st - 2/5)
29) Bravo Team (PSVR - August 25th - 2/5)
30) Hidden Agenda (PS4 - August 27th - 3/5)
31) Tetris Effect (PS4 - August 29th - 4/5)
32) Save Room - Organization Puzzle (Steam - August 30th - 3/5)
33) Biocrisis (Steam - August 30th - 2/5)
34) Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Rei (Steam - September 2nd - 3/5)
35) PlayStation VR Worlds: The London Heist (PSVR - September 5th - 2/5)
36) PlayStation VR Worlds: Scavengers Odyssey (PSVR - September 8th - 2/5)
37) Save Room - The Merchant (Steam - September 10th - 3/5)
38) We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie (Steam - September 17th - 3/5)
39) Tatakai no Banka (Steam - September 20th - 2/5)
40) Forgotten Worlds (Steam - September 24th - 3/5)
41) The Quarry (PS5 - September 30th - 4/5)
42) Unpacking (PS5 - October 1st - 2/5)
43) The Shadow Over Route 80 (Steam - October 6th - 3/5)
44) Ghosts 'n Goblins (Steam - October 9th - 3/5)
45) PowerWash Simulator (Steam - October 17th - 3/5)
46) Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch - October 27th - 5/5)
47) I live under your house. + It lives under the house. (Steam - October 27th - 2/5)
48) New Pokémon Snap (Switch - October 31st - 3/5)
49) God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP - November 4th - 3/5)
50) Chizome no Hana (PC - November 5th - 4/5)
51) Bloodwash (Steam - November 7th - 3/5)
52) Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (Steam - November 21st - 4/5)
53) Super Mario RPG (Switch - November 29th - 4/5)
54) The Evil 8 (Steam - December 1st - 3/5)
55) SkyFly (Steam - December 1st - 2/5)
56) My monstrous roommate. (Steam - December 5th - 2/5)
57) Toree 3D (Steam - December 6th - 3/5)
58) Gotham Knights (PS5 - December 14th - 3/5)
59) LEGO 2K Drive (PS5 - December 16th - 2/5)
60) Wordle (Steam - December 20th - 2/5)
61) Pyramid Curse (Steam - December 22nd - 2/5)
62) Christmas Massacre (Steam - December 23rd - 2/5)
63) Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting (Steam - December 23rd - 5/5)
64) Alan Wake (Steam - December 27th - 4/5)
65) Pleasure Puzzle: Portrait (Steam - December 27th - 2/5)
66) Alan Wake's American Nightmare (Steam - December 28th - 4/5)
67) Chocobo GP (Switch - December 29th - 2/5)

Breakdown

PC: 39 (Steam: 38, Other: 1)
PS4: 9
PS5: 7
PSVR: 5
Switch: 4
PS3: 1
PS1: 1
PSP: 1

restrand · Jan 1, 2023

Gonna try it this year

Equanimity · Jan 1, 2023

I don't think I've ever completed 52 games in a year, but I'll certainly give it a go. I guess it'll depend on the quality of software.

Nbz · Jan 1, 2023

I looked up how long I've been doing this challenge and it turns out since 2015, so this will be the 9th time I've done the challenge which is pretty baffling and I only failed to complete it once in all those attempts. Anyway here we go again!

January

1. Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood - 01/01/23
2. Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery - 01/01/23
3. The Ramp - ONGOING
4. We Know The Devil - 01/01/23
5. Sports Story - 05/01/23 (DNF)
6. Grapple Dog - 10/01/23
7. Disc Room - 16/01/23
8. Stray - 18/01/23
9. Onion Assault - 29/01/23

February

10. Fire Emblem Engage - 08/02/23
11. Hi-Fi RUSH - 15/02/23
12. Blanc - 19/02/23
13. Kuru Kuru Kururin - 21/02/23
14. Ghost Song - 24/02/23 (DNF)

March

15. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - 04/03/23 (DNF)
16. Chained Echoes - 11/03/23

April

17. The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog - 02/04/23
18. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - 09/04/23
19. Metroid Prime: Federation Force - 10/04/23
20. A Space for the Unbound - 23/04/23

May

21. Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed - 01/05/23
22. Planet of Lana - 28/05/23

June

23. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 18/06/23
24. Dordogne - 24/06/23
25. Street Fighter 6 - ONGOING

July

26. Honkai Star Rail: Chapter 1 - 01/07/23
27. Lost Judgment: The Kaito Files - 10/07/23
28. Pikmin 4 - 29/07/23
29. Venba - 31/07/23
30. Final Fantasy XVI - 31/07/23

August

31. Rogue Legacy 2 - 05/08/23
32. Later Alligator - 13/08/23
33. Mega Man 6 - 20/08/23

September

34. F-Zero 99 - ONGOING
35. Solar Ash - 17/09/23
36. Sea of Stars - 24/09/23
37. A Plague Tale: Requiem - 30/09/23

October

38. Cocoon - 01/10/23
39. Horizon Forbidden West - 07/10/23
40. Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores - 14/10/23
41. PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo - 15/10/23
42. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 - 26/10/23
43. Super Mario Bros. Wonder - 28/10/23

November

44. Headbangers: Rhythm Royale - 04/11/23
45. Viewfinder - 17/11/23
46. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name - 20/11/23
47. Thirsty Suitors - 21/11/23
48. A Walk With Yiayia - 25/11/23
49. Watermelon Game - 26/11/23
50. Time on Frog Island - 26/11/23

December

51. The Finals - ONGOING
52. Octopath Traveler 2 - 26/12/23
53. Metroid Prime Remastered - 30/12/23
54. Storyteller - 31/12/23

Lobster Roll · Jan 1, 2023

Let's begin! I think my plan as I go through these is to adjust my scores for each game as I go through. I want to do my best to use a true 0-10 scale, but I also want to tweak the scores as more of them roll in and I mentally stack them against one another.

Currently Prioritized:
Ravenlok (Xbox Series X via Game Pass)
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (releases 5/12/2023 on Nintendo Switch)

Currently Benched, but will finish:
The Legend of Tianding (Xbox Series X via Game Pass)
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Nintendo Switch via Nintendo Switch Online)
A Space for the Unbound (Xbox Series X purchased)
Road 96 (Xbox Series X via Game Pass)
Persona 4 Golden (Xbox Series X via Game Pass)
Cassette Beasts (Xbox Series X via Game Pass)
The Last Case of Benedict Fox (PC via Game Pass)
Forza Horizon 5 (Xbox Series X purchased ... playing as weekly GAAS)

Write-Ups:
1. Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery (74/100) - A delightful detour from games that require an enormous amount of focus & concentration. The premise is simple and it delivers on it very well over three mysteries. You are a frog detective, and you solve tiny little mysteries with extremely helpful witnesses. It's what I would call a "bite sized" game, and I couldn't ask for anything more from it. It's memorable, packed with humor, has an innocent charm to it, and is otherwise just something that will put a smile on your face.

2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (80/100) - What really needs to be said that hasn't already been said about this game? It had a very simple vision and it executed on it brilliantly. It tapped directly into our nostalgia and evokes all of the classic gameplay of the TMNT arcade and beat-em-up titles of our past and mixed in some fun variations to that formula. It's a delight to play with family & friends, and it's just impossible to not smile and have a good time with it. I scored it slightly lower, however, just because beat-em-ups for my tastes just kind of hit a soft ceiling. The music in the game is absolutely banging, though.

3. Pentiment (97/100) - Pentiment exceeded every expectation I had for it. I want to speak about so much of the game without going into spoilers, but I will resist. It's a ~15 hour narrative adventure with an enormous amount of historical detail and research done. While playing, I felt like I was transported to the 16th century as I navigated the provincial struggles of the people of that time. Layered within the story is the protagonist's own internal struggles and how he responds to and copes with regret relating to many life decisions he's made. The game makes you think about your place in the world, about leaving the world and leaving behind a legacy, how stories are passed on from generation to generation. It makes you think about the wheels of time and what is kept and what is lost. It is such a beautiful game from start to finish and has one of the strongest landed endings I've ever experienced. I knocked off a few points, however, because it felt like being influential via speech with the other characters in the game was a very high failure rate, and that they could have improved upon that aspect of the game. Otherwise - phenomenal game. Cannot recommend enough.

4. Coffee Talk (75/100) - This game is delightful. I was in love with all of the interweaving stories, Freya's nosiness, and the fun banter that took place within these conversations. It reminded me of my time as a barista when I would take time to connect with the familiar faces that stopped in often and made friends with people who started as just regular customers. The mood of the game is extremely relaxed, and it just made me happy to play. Coffee shops in general are a "third place" outside of work & home, and this game captures the spirit of that so well. The game is perfectly paced and doesn't overstay it's welcome, and the characters are delightful to be around. The story arcs are simple, but satisfying. I especially loved the blending of humans and supernatural creatures existing in harmony as they navigate relationships, work, crime, stress, and self-doubt. Beautiful little game. RIP to the Creator and Writer of the game, Mohammad Fahmi.

5. Unpacking (87/100) - What an absolutely awesome game. Unpacking really highlights how effectively games can tell stories in their unique, little way that separate it from other forms of media. As somebody who has had to pack all of their worldly possessions into boxes, move locations, unpack them, and turn a living space in a home, this game struck a very personal chord for me. Seeing the main character move items from their childhood all the way through home ownership with their partner makes me think about the items I've kept for life that get slightly more worn and have taken part in my journey on this planet. I love the subtle storytelling that takes place with the objects themselves. The chapter where you move into the hilariously on-the-nose Male Living Space was stressful and disrespectful, as the space you move into has been given absolutely no thought whatsoever to you or your belongings. You no longer have a work space. You get a measly 10% of the workout space. Everything that belongs to the other person is annoyingly centered and must be rearranged to make room for you. The only applicable place for your diploma is under the bed. Ugh. I felt so annoyed with the other person in that chapter and was thrilled - THRILLED - to move out into my own space in the next chapter. It was more rundown, but it was a personal space. There's also a ton of little charming things like seeing you and your partner add little items for each other to complement one another's hobbies, and how the living spaces become truly shared. It's a puzzle game on its surface, and a wonderfully told story under its surface. My heart feels full having finished the game.

6. Soma (55/100) - Decided to put my head down and hammer through to the end of the game. I just didn't like this one at all, but I really wanted to. I almost wish that I would have put the difficulty down to Safe Mode because the monster encounters had me so utterly bored that I had to strongarm myself to wrap the game up. The story, it's themes, and it's philosophical questions that it evokes within the player are all extremely strong, but at the end of the day, I still need to want to play the game. I've played plenty of walking simulators and narrative-first games, but if I find the gameplay to be a slog in any game, I just can't rate it highly. At the end of the day, it was demotivating to play.

7. Elden Ring (100/100) - Too many people with better writing skills and articulation of thought than me will have undoubtedly written much better summaries as to why this once-in-a-generation game is a 100/100 experience. Rare is it that we get a game this excellent. FromSoftware created true magic with this game. This was my third playthrough of the game and I went with Dexterity and no summons. I'm ready to put this game to rest finally until DLC drops for it.

8. GoldenEye 007 (85/100) - A game both in-and-out of time. It holds up in 2023, but it also doesn't. The non-linear mission design and having each mission act as a sandbox was an absolute revelation for a console shooter when the game first released. This is especially evident in 2023 when this kind of gameplay feels fresh to dive back into. No hand-holding needed here. Just complete your objectives and if you don't, mission failed. Try again. However, the game still has some warts to it, and these manifest in things like automatic guns wrecking you unless you peak out and shoot a single pixel of its corner, or Natalia getting absolutely wrecked while hacking a computer, or enemy spawns being excessively oppressive in certain 00 Agent missions. It's an all-time classic for a reason, and the fact that I've got it at an 85 by present-day standards is a massive compliment. It's a shame that the flaws are as annoying as they, are though. It makes for a frustrating experience when you're on tilt.

9. Deliver Us Mars (75/100) - I wasn't expecting them to lean as hard into the narrative side of the game as they did, but I sure am glad they did. I really started to connect each of the main characters and I thought they did a great job of making each of them imperfect, flawed people. I enjoyed the laser puzzles as they reminded me of things I enjoyed about The Talos Principle and Breath of the Wild where you enter the puzzle room and have to take a step back to assess what the problem is from a holistic point-of-view before you tackle it. I also really enjoyed the climbing sections, even if they were a little simple. There are definitely some moments in the game where it's like "you ARE playing a video game, remember that" that just ooze out of the design in a way where you're like "ok, I get it". Moments where the only way to get from Point A to Point B are through climbing and oh hey, you've got climbing axes, and oh look at that, the walls are made of the climbable materials and lead you to the exact place you have to end up in amongst all the rubble. There's also a ton of graphical and framerate jank in the game like AYLA vibrating quite often, or there was a moment where I switched to AYLA and I ended up clipped outside the building and in the hills of Mars. Overall, I really enjoyed my time with it, even if the flaws with it are pretty obvious. It's a very well told story with human characters, and even if the messaging of the game about the failings of humanity is a bit heavy-handed at times, you really do understand the struggles of the people stuck on Earth, the people wanting to leave Earth, the people wanting to leave Mars, and the people unsure of whether staying or going from either location is the correct call. It's a story that will stick with me for a while, and I agree with the decisions the protagonist made in the end. The game definitely leaves on an intentional cliffhanger, but it still ends in a satisfying way.

10. NORCO (86/100) - Paragraph.

11. Earthbound (100/100) - Paragraph.

12. Hi-Fi Rush (94/100) - Paragraph.

13. Umurangi Generation (58/100) - Paragraph.

14. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (88/100) - Paragraph.

15. Kentucky Route Zero (91/100) - Paragraph.

16. A Memoir Blue (79/100) - Paragraph.

17. Resident Evil 4 Remake (100/100) - Paragraph.

18. Persona 3 Portable (86/100) - Paragraph.

19. Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly (79/100) - Paragraph.

jonjonaug · Jan 1, 2023

1. Kishin Houkou Demonbane
This is a PC port of the PS2 remaster of Deus Machina Demonbane. Despite being a far superior version of the game with full voice acting, replacements for questionable porn scenes, an enhanced script, and a lot of new music, this wasn't actually released on anything other than the PS2 for over a decade. Some fans were kind enough to release an English patch for this release about half a year ago, using the translation from the 2011 JAST release of the original 18+ version as a base.

Despite some questionable elements that are still present (it's still very much an early 00s visual novel), I had a blast going through this release. I'm a pretty big mecha fan, and Demonbane is up there with Gurren Lagann or the back half of GaoGaiGar when it comes to over the top super robot action. The robot fight scenes escalate exponentially throughout the story, starting with the protagonist struggling to fight a single Tetsujin 28-style tin can robot and ending with a fight that repeatedly shatters space-time (at one point during the fight they travel back in time and wipe out the dinosaurs by accident). The prose is incredibly purple, but still flows well and is fun to read, and the characters are all utterly ridiculous individuals. The voice acting is really good for most of the characters too, with Hikaru Midorikawa in particular turning in one of the best performances of his career as the most Hikaru Midorikawa-ish character possible (there's a reason he keeps begging for Demonbane to be in SRW). 9/10

2. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
I played through the first two levels of this on release but put it on hold so I could catch up with the rest of the Kill the Past games that I haven't played. Since I cleared The 25th Ward last month, I finally came back to this and went through it all in one sitting.

The "main game" where you run through a bunch of overhead hack and slash levels is kind of garbage. Not that Grasshopper is known for its gameplay, but this was bad even by those standards. The ADV segments though I liked quite a lot, because stuff written by Suda51 and friends is just really fun to read. It was also neat to see Travis interacting with a bunch of characters from other Suda51 games, particularly The Silver Case and The 25th Ward (there's a lot of 25th Ward related stuff). 7/10

3. Seventh Lair
This is a short, completely linear visual novel from the same development team behind The House in Fata Morgana. It uses character sprites and background graphics from Fata Morgana to save on development costs (they even reuse character names from Fata Morgana), but the two works are basically unrelated besides covering some similar themes and ideas.

Like Fata Morgana, this was pretty heavy. Pretty darn good stuff though. It's only 4 hours long so I won't go into the details, but the writing and music are what you would expect if you've read Fata Morgana before. There's lots of "character narrating a cliffnotes summary of things that happened to them" instead of proper flashback scenes, so the only time this moved me emotionally like Fata Morgana did was near the end, but I understand why they did this to keep the length of the work from getting out of control for a simple story. 9/10

4. New Pokemon Snap
This is a cute, relaxing game. The core gameplay is essentially the same as the old N64 title, but with the new twist that every Pokemon in the game has four slots in the "Photodex" that you can fill depending on their current pose and behavior, encouraging experimentation and careful observation. The game keeps this from being too overwhelming for completionists by offering lots of hints on how to get certain behaviors through a quest system, which is really smart design.

The maps are all well designed. Lots of them have little stories that happen as you move through them as the Pokemon interact with the environment and with each other. Grinding out maps to unlock more/better Pokemon behaviors can be a little annoying, but the game justifies this somewhat by having maps evolve over time (for example, Bidoof building a dam in the first map). I do want to see more, but I have a huge backlog to get through (and some games I want to play more) and I don't want to spend 60 hours on a game where you hit the credits in 10 hours right now. 8/10

5. Fire Emblem Three Hopes
One of the best Musou-style games Omega Force has ever produced. It mixes standard Musou "run around the map and clear objectives while beating up a bunch of dudes" gameplay with Fire Emblem's strength/weakness systems and unit micromanagement, and they end up blending together really well. Musou games are usually "make your own fun" sorts of affairs, but Three Hopes does a good job encouraging players to play in a "fun" way by offering good rewards for S ranking stages.

As a fan of Three Houses, I appreciated how this serves as an "alternate history" to the original game but also is not a "golden ending/fixfic" type of affair either. There's less drama in some ways, but it's also impossible to "save" as many characters as you can in Three Houses. I also liked how Shez contrasted with Byleth. Byleth is stoic and wise, while Shez is talkative and kind of a total dumbass.

There might be a little too much game here though. The back half of the game has around 5 or 6 filler stages per chapter. I didn't mind so much since the game was fun enough (and I'm a lunatic that fully cleared Ambition mode in DW8:XE), but good lord that was a 50 hour game where if you skipped all the cutscenes and filler missions it would have been around 3-5 hours long. I only completed Edelgard's scenario, so if I do go back later to finish the other I expect I'll greatly appreciate the "skip filler stage" items you can grab on NG+. 8/10

6. Citizen Sleeper
This is essentially a Twine game with a graphical user interface slapped onto it, so the game basically lives or dies on the quality of the writing. Which, I'm happy to say, is quite high for the most part. There's only a couple of questlines in here that didn't resonate with me in some way, and I especially liked the AI related bits. 8/10

7. Hi-Fi Rush
This is an excellent first attempt at a style of game I'm not sure has ever quite been done before.

The good: The core gameplay is solid. The way the entire world moves to the beat and reacts to your inputs is really cool, and I'm shocked they managed to keep this up for the entire game. The script is one of the best "Saturday morning cartoon" style affairs I've seen in a video game, almost up there with Kid Icarus Uprising. The music is good. The way the game will seamlessly transition between different styles during cutscenes is very well implemented.

The not so good: It's mostly a pretty easy game (for a character action game at least), but there's a few huge difficulty spikes in weird places that I'm not sure were meant to be that bad. Needing to hit armored enemies multiple times with Macaron (unless you pull off a difficult parry maneuver) severely breaks the flow of gameplay whenever they show up. I have no idea why you have to cycle through support characters with LT, it makes things really awkward once you get all three of them (they should have had LT cycle through specials and used three of the D-Pad buttons to summon partners instead). The back half of the game is light on fresh content, and they even make jokes in-game about how things needed to be cut.

Overall I had a good time. If they do make a sequel though, hopefully it improves on the areas that were lacking and we get some kind of "Mega Man 1->Mega Man 2" result out of it. 8/10

8. Bayonetta 3
This game is a fever dream. Just absolute bat-shittery from start to finish, even more so than Platinum and Bayonetta usually are, to the point where it's kind of hard to actually care what happens to anyone but you keep watching the cutscenes just to see what insane BS will happen next.

Overall this game is really fun. I think it's an evolution over Bayonetta 2 but probably still doesn't have the same replay value as Bayonetta 1. I don't feel like replaying one game six times right now though, so it's hard to say for sure. The new stuff they did try to do was a lot more interesting than the new stuff in Bayo2 though. You can't mix and match weapons anymore, but they make up for it by having a large number of unique weapons and summonable demons. I liked most of Viola's gameplay but that perfect parry window is ridiculously tight and could have been loosened by a few frames. The gameplay mixups felt a bit more polished than usual for a Platinum release, generally being more intuitive than similar situations in W101 and Astral Chain. 9/10

9. Castle of Illusion
This is the 2013 version of the game. A pretty fun but very short 2.5D platformer based on the Sega Genesis game. It's pretty interesting how they took design elements from the original game and translated them to a modern 2.5D platformer, and it's neat how some levels and boss fights transition smoothly between 2D and more 3D-ish gameplay. Some of the boss fights have some real good presentation too. 7/10

10. Little Inferno
A strange little game about burning things. Unlike World of Goo there's not much "gameplay" here, it's basically a yule log simulator. The writing can be pretty moving though, particularly the ending. 7/10

11. Sam and Max Hit the Road
I'm a big fan of the Telltale Sam and Max games but this is the first time I've gone back and played the LucasArts game. I had a great time with it right up until near the end after you defeat the main antagonist and have to do a "scavenger hunt" across the entire map. The vibe of the game kind of breaks after that and it doesn't really have a "climax" feel even though the end cutscene is cool. Luckily this doesn't take too long and doesn't leave too sour of a taste in your mouth. 8/10

12. Shatter
A pretty good game that mixes brick breaking gameplay with some shmup elements. Those last few bosses are really hard but the rest of the game is easy, making things kind of uneven. Pretty good overall. 7/10

13. Dishonored 2
I played through this as Emily so I could use powers that were different from the first game. This is definitely just as good as Dishonored 1 is, maybe even a little better. I'm a little shocked how smart they made the AI. They'll notice you from a fair distance away and raise hell if they spot you, it's really easy to alert one enemy and suddenly have five more breathing down your neck. It took me until halfway through the game until I became more comfortable with the stealth. On chapter 4 I was detected 41 times, but the counter never went above single digits for the remainder of the game. I went for low chaos, but this game feels like it'd also be really fun going for a more lethal route.

All the levels are well designed, with chapters 4 and 7 in particular being the real standouts. The story is serviceable, I guess. 9/10

14. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
A stand alone expansion to Dishonored 2 that keeps a lot of the same basic mechanics while making major tweaks to others, along with a few completely unique new powers. All of the levels here are of pretty high quality, with levels 2 and 3 as the standouts. They''re more tightly designed around the only powers you have, rather than offering a ton of different approaches based on whatever you might happen to have, so there's a lot of more puzzle-y elements to the level design. The sub-missions are cool, and I particularly like how there's one in level 3 that requires being a total ghost and one in level 4 that encourages you to be as loud and lethal as possible. I do wish this had just one more level between missions 4 and 5, it's a little too short for an "expansion". 9/10

15. Bugsnax
This is the best game I've played so far this year. Also, what the fuck? 9/10

16. Immortality
I can't really say much about this without spoiling it, but I enjoyed it a lot. This is definitely one of the most ambitious FMV games out there and has great vibes. It's quite long for an FMV game too, it took me around 10 hours to unlock everything, although I used a guide for the clips that required slow motion and I didn't bother tracking down the the super hidden monologue clips which would have required sitting through every scene in the game again and I'm not doing that. 9/10

17. Half-Life
I played through a ray tracing mod of Half-Life 1 after watching this video on YouTube. Normally I think "replace lighting of old game with new lightning system" mods look dumb, but this ended up being pretty dang impressive. Partly because Half-Life 1 took care to make the lightning feel "natural" a lot of the time even though it was released in 1998, so a ray tracing mod actually ends up working really well with it.

Also, it's Half-Life 1. 10/10

18. Hitman
My only previous exposure to the Hitman franchise is making it through the first two levels of Blood Money and dropping it because the controls were ass. The controls are still ass in this one, and I almost dropped it too after the god awful tutorial level, but I'm glad I didn't. Once I turned the difficulty down to Casual and got more of a feel for how NPCs will react in certain situations, I started having a lot more fun with it.

Some of the levels are kind of janky. On some occassions I had trouble getting certain mission stories to trigger and eventually just went "ah, screw it" and shot the target in the head. 8/10

19. Hitman 2
It's more Hitman. This time around the levels are bigger and more intricate, while also being more refined. Better level design, guard placement, and mission story design helps keep things from falling apart at the seams as the first game did on occasion. 9/10

20. Hitman 3
Even more Hitman. There are fewer mission stories per level, but the ones that are present tend to be far more lengthy and detailed. Some of them can even completely change up how you approach a level instead of just setting up a target for an easy kill, like a mission at a mansion full of "old money" assholes where you can play detective and solve a murder mystery (or frame someone else and let the actual culprit kill your target for you when they strike again). While every level in the other two games in this trilogy had some unique elements to them, they really went all out here making every single level in this game totally different from the others in huge ways. 9/10

21. Resident Evil 4 (remake)
This is an excellent remake of Resident Evil 4 if you're playing on Standard difficulty. They did a great job preserving most of the good things about the game while putting a modern twist on things and remixing the level and encounter design to keep old players on their toes.

Hardcore and above is poorly designed because none of that remains true. Throwing in mechanics from the RE2 remake to reduce enemy stagger and having to wait for your crosshairs to align is dumb as hell and ruins the synergy that the gameplay systems have going on. The greatest thing about RE4 is how reactive enemies are to your attacks, and turning every basic enemy into a bullet sponge that takes multiple shots to cause any sort of reaction ruins this. Adding time requirements to unlock things is dumb. Professional is way overtuned compared to the original game, you'll basically be constantly running out of ammo if you actually try to fight things and the lack of autosaving is a horrible design choice.

Also, Saddler is also a huge downgrade over how he was in the original game and even on Standard the ammo management can feel a little too strict, not letting you play around with your guns as much (shotgun shells in particular need their drop rate buffed). 9/10 if you just do one playthrough on Standard, 7/10 if you want to get the most out of it and replay it a bunch of times. 8/10 average I guess.

22. Pizza Tower
Crazy fast placed 2D platformer with inspiration from Wario Land. The levels have amazing flow and everything feels very tightly designed. The artstyle is delightfully deranged. 9/10

23. Signalis
This is a 2D overhead survival horror game that mixes classic Resident Evil style gameplay (including having only six inventory slots) with Silent Hill's dreamlike and Lovecraftian vibes, soundtrack stylings (the OST is a mix of tender piano, ominous ambiance, and dark industrial), and disturbing enemy designs. There's also some obvious anime/manga influences from Hideaki Anno's works, Blame, Gantz, Ghost in the Shell, and various other late 90s/early 00s sci-fi anime with similar vibes.

The game wears its influences on its sleeve while also successfully mixing it all into something that feels totally excellent and unique. 9/10

24. Goat Simulator
Goofy physics thing. I don't think this has an ending, so I just played it until I got bored. 6/10

25. Code Vein
Pretty good for a mid-budget Souls clone (better than Jedi Fallen Order at any rate). The enemy variety is low and the weapons don't really have big enough movesets, but it still plays fairly well and looks cool. The story and cutscenes can land on occasion but tend to either say too much or not enough.

It's kind of easy for a Souls clone. The most I died against any boss in the game was twice, and most bosses (including all major story bosses and the final bosses) I killed in one attempt. Though some of the levels could be a little challenging or interesting, and I did like how a couple of levels tried to keep you on your toes with spatial awareness, with the path forward or paths to vital items sometimes hidden behind a spot where you need to drop down. 7/10

26. Prodeus
Fun, fast paced boomer shooter. The parts where you fight the blue guys aren't so fun. It looks real nice. 8/10

27. Why Am I Dead At Sea
Pretty good mystery game with a unique concept where you're a ghost that can possess the characters. Although it can be pretty annoying later on in the game where you can possess everyone and you're basically going through the list of all possible conversation pairs until you hit the flag that lets you progress. 7/10

28. Tetris Effect: Connected
Main story mode clear only. It's an OK Tetris variant. Neat visual/music effects when it works but the game amps up the speed a bit too much to enjoy things with weird difficulty spikes. 5/10

29. Xenoblade 3 - Future Redeemed
An excellent sendoff to Xenoblade 1 through 3. I enjoyed the gameplay and the story a lot. The exploration and area design is a little different from the base game. The environments are smaller but also more tightly packed with stuff, and the rewards for exploring are actually a huge deal because you'll need them just to unlock abilities and equipment slots. It's also neat how there's no loading screens between zones anywhere in the game, and it's cool to compare this DLC against the base game of Xenoblade 2 and marvel at how much better the performance is on the same system. I'm looking forward to whatever Takahashi's team does next, presumably on better hardware.

If I have any complaints it'd be these: Shulk, A, and Nikol aren't as much fun to play when compared with the better tank and healer jobs from Xenoblade 3. Rex pulls aggro way too easily even if you put reduction gems and accessories on him and aggro up items on the tanks, although it is kind of funny watching him get knocked down because of this multiple times in one fight. The superbosses range from level 60 to 100 and the endgame grind to fight them all is absurd because there's nothing else in the game to do past level 60 besides fighting them repeatedly, so unlike every other Xenoblade game I'm not going to bother doing that. 9/10

30. Prey (2017)
I replayed Prey because Redfall was disappointing. I liked it even more on a repeat playthrough. The level/world design is possibly the best ever in a video game, it's absolutely insane how much thought went into the environment and how it all fits together. 10/10

31. Prey: Mooncrash
This is the first time I've gone through Mooncrash. Can't say I enjoyed it too much though, it doesn't really have too much of what I liked about the base game. 7/10

32. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
This makes BOTW, already one of the greatest games ever made, look like a tech demo. I cleared every Shrine, fully illuminated the Depths, and did nearly every side quest filed under the game's "side adventure" category.

The scale of the world is stupidly huge. You have the entire landmass from BOTW completely remixed, dozens of new cave systems to explore, a set of sky islands above every region, and an underground area the size of the entire base landmass. All of these are fun to explore, particularly the Depths. The way you go from slowly moving while firing off a brightbloom seed every few feet to absolutely dominating the place with flying machines after you expand your battery size and become more comfortable exploring in the dark is a level of mechanical progression in exploration I haven't really seen pulled off this well in any game since Xenoblade X.

The new powers are all interesting and lend themselves really well to emergent gameplay. Ultrahand and Recall are things you would expect to see in a small scale indie game focused entirely on just one of those mechanics, but Nintendo threw them into a game world of nearly unprecedented scope and made it work. Despite having mechanics that should rightfully fall apart under their own weight in a big open world game like this with a ton of other stuff going on, the gameplay is polished to a mirror sheen and I encountered no bugs or crashes during my time with the game.

Fuse is a cool spin on the weapon degradation mechanic from the original game and can be used in lots of interesting ways that may not be apparent at first glance. It's most obvious use (and the one most players will probably use the most) is to make weapons stronger/add elemental damage and give them a few extra hits before breaking, but you can do a lot of cool stuff with it. Fused arrows will fly farther if you attach a keese wing to them or cause massively damaging explosions if you attach a gem to them, you can fuse a bomb flower to your shield and shield surf for a rocket jump, fuse a ruby to your shield for a fiery explosion if something attacks you, fuse a rocket to your shield for a quick burst of height, and so on.

Ascend just neat. There are places in the game that are obviously signposted as "use Ascend here", but you can use it in lots of other places to save time or skip past certain sections of areas, and there's even a few enemies where you can take advantage of it for easier kills.

The music is all great. You have the holdovers from BOTW which had an excellent soundtrack to begin with, but the new stuff is even better. The ambient stuff all works wonderfully when it's used, and they went even harder on the layered music for dungeons, enemy fights, and boss fights where different tracks are played depending on what's going on.

This might actually dethrone Majora's Mask as my favorite Zelda game, and therefore would my favorite game ever made. It's absurd that this game exists. It took six years to make and I don't understand how it didn't take them 20. 10/10

33. System Shock (2023)
For a "survival horror remake" I think this even beats out this year's RE4. It manages to be both incredibly faithful to the original in how the map layouts are nearly identical and the story and objectives are about the same. But it also touches up and improves on just about every aspect of the game, with fresh controls, updated enemy behavior, improved weapon balance, a new weapon upgrade system, redone voice acting, and a far more effective soundtrack (not totally pure ambiance, but it's very quiet unless you're in combat compared to the original game's loud MIDI BGM, and each deck has separate exploration and combat tracks).

Even with all the updates, the game still has a very retro feel, both in the visuals and the gameplay. Unless you opt for a low difficulty setting at the start, the game doesn't offer you any sort of objective markers or even firm direction on what you're supposed to be doing at times, leaving the player to piece together how to foil SHODAN's plots through audio logs scattered around the station.

It's an incredibly oppressive dungeon crawler that had me on the edge of my seat a lot of the time. You feel like a rat in a maze running through Citadel Station, as you slowly gnaw away at SHODAN's security systems (literally, a key mechanic is blowing up her security cameras and mainframe nodes on each deck), open up locked doors, find keycards, and occasionally backtrack through previous decks to complete objectives. SHODAN herself is the GOAT video game mad AI in how she is actually just murderously batshit insane. She's more straightforward in this manner than her imitators, but the malice dripping off of her every sentence as you move through her "body" does wonders for the game's atmosphere.

In short: I freaking loved it. My only complaint is a major bug I encountered in the last level that made me have to go through the entire thing twice, but it's also the shortest level (it took me like 15 minutes to go through it again), so no big deal really. 9/10

34. System Shock 2
I thought about waiting until the "Enhanced Edition" of this game came out to replay it after my System Shock 1 playthrough, but I couldn't bring myself to put a damper on my hankering for more System Shock.

This is still one of the best sci-fi horror games ever made. The design of the Von Braun and the atmosphere are top notch, the soundtrack is great (although some of the early game tunes maybe go just a little too hard at times even if they sound great), the enemies are cool and unsettling, and the horror aspects manage to be intimidating while also not being overwhelming.

But in the wake of the System Shock 1 remake, its age becomes even more glaringly apparent. It wasn't a good looking game on release, and now even with a very caring modding community the game has simply not aged well in the visual department. There might be a pretty good weapon model replacement mod out there, but that doesn't really solve the complete lack of animation when firing any weapons. The game is also still horrendously unbalanced. Half of the weapons in the game and over half of the PSI abilities are essentially useless. A remake in the style of the first game's remake that keeps what made the game good while improving on the presentation and game balance (and maybe removing that nonsensical "destroy 16 eggs" objective from the Rickenbacker) would give Prey a run for its money as the best immersive space horror game. 9/10

35. Final Fantasy XVI
This may be my favorite Final Fantasy game after 14, beating out my other favorites (5, 6, and 2). The gameplay is smooth as butter and the visuals are outstanding. It's definitely the best looking and best playing FF game to date.

The main combat system is very solidly built, while still being simple enough so that people who aren't familiar with action games can enjoy it. I recommend trying to play without any of the hand-holding accessories at first, even if you aren't good at action games. The game frontloads the "easy" primal abilities, while saving the gimmicky ones for the back half of the game. Which is the right idea for not turning off players, but it does hurt a little to have to wait until you're nearly halfway through the game to get even something like Titan's counter strike abilities. I really want to jump into NG+ to check out the mixed up encounters and have the full moveset from the start, but there's several other games I also want to play through right now so I doubt I will.

The enemy variety could be just a bit higher, but it's definitely satisfactory enough. It helps that even if models are reused, the Hunt bosses (of which there are plenty) have at least some unique moves, and there are a good number of them that end up feeling different from the base enemies they're built on. Lots of enemy attacks have the same "AOE tell" thing going on that FF14 does and I thought that was neat.

The boss fights are where the gameplay and visuals really come together to create some of the most impressive spectacle fights ever put into a video game. There are a few that rival anything Platinum's best output conceptually and gameplay-wise, while also having a current-gen AAA level of polish (and budget) that Platinum has never had.

The party might not be as large or as colorful as many other FF games, but I like the small, tight-knit thing the game has going on, and how party members cycle in and out reminds me of FF2 in a cool way. The way the game can be really dark, kill or otherwise write off party members, and burn multiple villages and towns to the ground regularly also reminds me of FF2.

The main story is pretty good, but where the writing really shines is in the way the communities you visit and the relationships you build develop over the course of the game. The sidequests in the last third of the game are almost uniformly fantastic, and the way they finish the story of every character in the game makes them feel like at least some of them should have been worked into the main plot.

The music is just plain great. Every gameplay moment and every cutscene always has excellent music backing it. "To Sail Forbidden Seas" is a standout boss theme for the entire franchise.

Yoshi-P might as well be the king of the franchise now between this and 14. 9/10

36. Tsukihime - A Piece of Blue Glass Moon
It only took 15 years since it was announced, but I finally got to play the (first half) of the Tsukihime remake. Really good stuff all around. The Arcueid route is basically the same as the original but with more text, a few extra loredumps, a few new side characters and subplots, and much better visuals+music. The Ciel route is around 75% or so new content and goes absolutely bonkers at a few points. Hopefully it doesn't take another 15 years for the rest of the remake to be finished. 9/10.

37. Fate Grand Order Part 2 Chapter 6: Avalon le Fae
I'm counting this as a full "game" even it it's technically just a single chapter of a live service gacha game because the story alone, not counting the fights, is around 30 hours long. The start is pretty slow, but once the plot really starts to move after the Norwich event it quickly becomes the best main story content that FGO has ever seen (and that's really saying something considering the game has a six year history and a bunch of good story chapters and events until now). 9/10

38. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code
If you've played Danganronpa you already know what to expect for the most part. Mind bendy murder mysteries mixed with dramatic stories, over the top characters, and absurdly crass humor. The main differences are that this time around the amoral mascot character is your closest ally instead of the main antagonist, and everything takes place in full 3D environemnts rather than a visual novel style (although it's still very Japanese adventure game-y). I really enjoyed this one, possibly even more than anything out of Danganronpa. The mysteries are all fun to figure out, and the game is good at striking the right kind of mood as you walk around the city. 9/10

39. Baldur's Gate
I wouldn't call myself a huge CRPG fan, but despite playing Planescape Torment, Tyranny, and Pillars of Eternity, as well as all the Dragon Age games, I've never actually played Baldur's Gate. It's pretty good, but coming to it after playing various other games that trace their lineage back to it, it feels quite dated. A fair bit of the game can be summed up as "you either break the game systems over your knee and kill half the enemy encounter in 1-2 turns, or you perish", and the core RTwP gameplay is just as awkward as it is in all the games that imitate it. The story also isn't much to write home about, and the jokes where the game makes fun of its own genre land better than the serious parts. Still, there is definitely something to be said for the amount of freedom the game offers you to explore and figure things out on your own, even if the quest design and writing doesn't hold a candle to some of its contemporaries like Fallout 1/2 and PS:T. 7/10.

40. Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
I can see why people that really like BG1 don't like this as much, since it's not really focused on the things that BG1 did well (exploration and the freedom to figure things out for yourself). Instead it's more focused on making cool dungeons and combat encounters, while funneling you through a very linear series of maps. But it does a good job of those things, and the dungeons and combat encounters are far better designed than anything in BG1 (or even most of BG2's). 8/10

41. Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn
A stunningly ambitious game hampered just a little bit by pesky development constraints like "not having infinite money and time". As a result there are parts of the game which feel lavishly designed, and parts of the game that feel a little anemic on content and polish, leading to the overall experience feeling a little uneven at times. There are some companions that have a ton of investment, and others that are basically just kinda there (if you can even get their personal quests to trigger). The questlines, towns, and dungeons in Acts 2 and 3 are likewise much better designed than the ones in Acts 4 and 5. Overall though, it's a very impressive package. 9/10

42. Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal
Unlike SoA, which was a much more open game, this one is more focused on just wrapping things up so Bioware could move on instead of trying to make a full third game in the trilogy when the AD&D ruleset these games were developed under was already visibly strained by the end of SoA. As a result, the game mostly just teleports you from key location to key location in a fixed order, with the only freedom offered to the player being midway through the game where they can tackle two locations in either order, and there are very few sidequests on offer (unlike SoA where the real meat of the game was in the side content). The development was also clearly a little rushed, so you run into the same situation as Dragon Age 2 where there's obviously points where they had to cut or change some things at the last minute but not all the dialogue reflects this accurately (ex: Viconia getting hyped up about the destruction of Saradush in her romance dialogue when you don't actually get to see it for yourself in the final product). But what is there is very well done, and all of the little mini-arcs for all of the Bhaalspawn villains were a lot of fun. I also played this with the "Ascension" mod, which significantly revamps the last chapter and makes some other minor changes. I looked up the "original" version of the game afterward and I was impressed with the changes made. 9/10

43. Baldur's Gate 3
One of the best CRPGs I've ever played. Normally in this genre you run into situations where things kinda fall apart after the halfway point, or there are some parts of the game that obviously received more developer care while other parts suffer. Nothing like that is the case here. Instead, we have a game with the ambition and scope of BG2, the player choice of a Black Isle/Obsidian Fallout game, and the "cool/insane thing happening every 5-10 minutes" factor of PS:T and Disco Elysium, all in a modern HD game with good production values. This keeps up from the beginning right through to the very end of the game.

The gameplay is actually really good too, much better than the sloppy RTwP gameplay of the older BG games. The player has tons of options for how to put their party together, to the point that they can even reclass their companion characters if they really want to (even if doing so makes no sense story-wise), and every class has its values. Nearly every combat encounter in the game has something special going for it, and there's only a handful of fights in the entire game I would call "trash encounters" (unlike BG1/2 which has tons of those).

My only complaint: The game is a little buggy, but not any more so than any other major western RPG is at release, and I experienced nothing game breaking. The most annoying thing that needs fixing is that the game will hang a little in combat if an enemy can't take any actions, until it will "decide" not to do anything.

Before this game came out, I think a lot of people were wondering if it would be as good as the best of the CRPGs released in the late 90s and early 00s. After playing it, I think the question now isn't whether it's worthy of standing alongside those games, the question is whether it has surpassed them. In my opinion, it very much has. 10/10

44. Control
It's been weeks since I finished playing this game but I'm still not quite sure what to think about it. I love the vibes (most of the time), the concept of an "office building metroidvania" is neat, the SCP/weird fiction inspired setting is interesting, and the gameplay is servicable.

But overall, I don't really think I liked this too much. We get to hear and read about some really cool sounding things but in-game there's only a few actually really cool surprising encounters against something that feels truly unknowable or strange. Most of the game just has you shooting at zombies. I think the game just could have been a lot weirder and more varied.

I said the core shooting gameplay is serviceable, but it's also not particularly good. The powers you get are pretty fun, but they're tied to an annoying skill tree system that doesn't really have any need to exist. 6/10

45. Half-Life 2
I had choice paralysis on what to play next so I replayed Half-Life 2 for the first time in a few years cause why not. 10/10

46. Half-Life 2: Episode 1
I also played this. 9/10

47. Armored Core VI
An excellent mecha action game with sublime controls. I got real frustrated at the start, with the low point being slamming my face against the chapter 2 boss for around 2-3 hours, but once I got over the early difficulty spikes and found a build to my liking (tank build with dual miniguns and grenade launchers) I started having a lot more fun with the game. The recent 1.02 patch that just released today also smoothed out some of the major difficulty spikes and buffed a bunch of the weapons, which addressed my only real complaints about the game. 9/10

48. Starfield
This game has kind of a bad and slow start at the beginning. You have to follow the main quest for quite a few hours to get your bearings and unlock a bunch of basic abilities and gameplay features, and the early main quest is not much to write home about. Once you actually travel to a few towns and are ready to really set out on adventure though, the dull start quickly gives way to one of Bethesda's best ever open world RPGs. There's elements from all of Bethesda's previous RPGs here. Even Daggerfall has some obvious influences in the design with the endless open expanses, procedurally generated dungeons, and varied social skills. There's also powers that are basically the Dragon Shouts from Skyrim, but rebalanced to be more useful. The gunplay and enemy encounters are similar to Fallout 4's but with a lot of improvments. Honestly it's like playing a "best of" Bethesda game in some ways.

The skill system makes this one of Bethesda's most RPG-y RPGs since Morrowind, you actually have to really invest in certain skills to be good with them, and there's many things you straight up cannot do without putting at least a point in a relevant skill. Because so many skills do important things, every skill point you use ends up feeling like a really weighty choice up until around level 50 or so, by which point you've mostly finished with the game. They also mixed the leveling systems of Elder Scrolls and Fallout in a cool way, where every action you take feeds an XP meter and you get one skill point per level up, but you can't level up a skill without doing enough of something that utilizes it.

The faction quests are all good, with the UC Vanguard and Crimson Fleet being particular standouts, and there are plenty of other interesting side questlines strewn throughout the game. The fact that the main quest is unrelated to any huge world-saving/altering consequences means that you feel like you have much more freedom to just go off and do whatever, which is a welcome reprieve after Oblivion and Skyrim's overbearing main quests. Although the main quest still isn't particularly interesting until you're around 2/3rds through.

Overall I had a ton of fun playing through this. I think I covered just about every sidequest in the game, and I did a couple of quick NG+ runs for novelty.

9/10

49. Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways
A vast improvement over the original Separate Ways campaign. This is partly because they cut a half-dozen or so moments/set pieces from the main campaign in the remake and saved them for this instead, and also partly because Separate Ways in OG RE4 wasn't that good. The level design and enemy placement is mostly really good, with a couple of annoying rooms (did we really need another "Garrador runs around with a bunch of extras in the room" fight?). It did also kind of remind me of the things I don't like about the remake though. A lot of rooms have some pretty aggressive enemies that spawn right near you, and the fact that shooting them isn't a reliable way to slow them down like it is in the original version of RE4 is annoying. 8/10

50. Fate/Samurai Remnant
An excellent Fate spinoff for both fans and newcomers alike. The combat is super solid and a much better showing than Omega Force's other non-"actual Musou game" efforts like Persona 5 Strikers. The story is excellent, on par at least with most of the better Fate stories/scenarios/FGO chapters, but not quite on the level of the absolute best ones. This is partly because it's an action game though, and the game avoids any of the heavy narration or flowery prose that Sakurai's actually really good at in favor of not having the player spend too long a time between gameplay bits. Overall the presentation is really good. The major fight cutscenes really hyped me up, and the characters are extremely expressive in their sprites (I especially love Saber and Musashi's expressions). The music is great too but it's Type Moon + Omega Force so that's basically a given.

Overall this was one of the best games this year in a ridiculously good year for video games. 9/10

51. Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin
Someone in a Discord server I frequent was playing Dark Souls 2 for the first time and it made me want to replay it because I haven't done so in at least five years I think. Still a great game. 9/10

52. Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Man I love 2D Mario. Every single level in this game is a joy to play. The Wonder mechanic lets Nintendo greatly shake up gameplay in a way that consistently leaves the player surprised and delighted. There's a ton of fresh ideas in this game, as well as reworked mechanics from multiple older Mario games. There's even a few levels reminiscent of Yoshi's Island transformations. The badges are also worth noting, there are a lot of different ways to alter your gameplay experience. Some are simple like adding a little to your jump height or letting you float, but there's others with more significant shakeups to the gameplay. The "! Block" badge, for example, adds a bunch of extra blocks to most levels similar to the ! Switches in Super Mario World. There's also badges for total sickos that'll make you run really fast at all times, make you bounce constantly, or tun you completely invisible to both enemies and yourself.

The game has a mix of easy and hard levels. Levels that are on the critical path tend to be easier, while optional and hidden levels are harder. I feel like there could have been a little more of a balance in favor of more difficult content, but I've been playing 2D Mario games for 30 years so I'm not exactly a fair judge of what should be considered difficult or not in them. I still had a ton of fun even on the levels a four year old could clear. 10/10

53. Grime
This was a fairly decent mix of Soulslike and Metroidvania that picked up a lot toward the end of the game.

Things that I liked: The enemy design in the game is great across the board, and there are several boss encounters I was completely in love with. The atmosphere of the game is solid, particularly in the late game areas. All of the music is really good. The platforming segments late in the game were interesting breaks from the action.

Things I didn't like: The game combines things from Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, Castlevania, and other games and kind of tries to be all of them at once, but it doesn't always work. In particular the stamina system can often feel too restraining, like it's something that hampers you rather than encouraging you to be more deliberate in your actions. I don't really feel like having a stat point-based leveling system like Souls was really needed either. Healing is also severely limited and healing bar upgrades are difficult to find, I didn't get the second and third healing bars filled out until after I'd beaten the third-to-last required boss. The game tries to balance this by giving you items that can restore your healing bar, but these are so limited that you'll be scared to use them. These factors sometimes make the game feel hard in an unfun sort of way.

Overall though I liked Grime a lot, mostly because it really picks up in the last third or so of the game with some really neat areas and bosses. 8/10

54. Alan Wake
Honestly, I liked this more than Control. It's not as high fidelity and not as ambitious, but it executes better on what it manages to do. The Twin Peaks aesthetic is cool and I actually kinda liked the combat. The way the game utilizes light in combat and the way the game empties your inventory between chapters so you're encouraged to use what you have are both cool. I especially like how checkpoints work in the game, where if you see one up ahead it can be a valid strategy to beeline for it instead of fighting enemies while using flares to keep them off your back. 8/10

55. Alan Wake: The Signal
More Alan Wake! This is just a series of battle encounters that are mostly better than the main game's with some neat story bits between them. 8/10

56. Alan Wake: The Writer
Even more Alan Wake! This one also has some cool combat encounters, but also tries to play around more with what's possible in the engine. There's a few segments with little to no combat that try to do some neat things with the game mechanics, and they mostly succeed. I really liked this one. 9/10

57. Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Alan Wake but this time with more of a focus on the action, with the mechanics changed up a little to match with the more aggressive playstyle. They saved on time/budget by having you go through the same maps three times, but for the most part this didn't take full advantage of the possibilities that the loop structure could have allowed from both a story and gameplay perspective. 6/10

58. Control: The Foundation
Control's first DLC. Honestly this is just more Control. The story is kind of nonsensical in a bad way (the Board doesn't trust you to have both abilities they offer but also are asking you to do something that's physically impossible without both of them???). The cave system was cool at least, and a couple of the puzzles were nice. 6/10

59. Control: AWE
The Alan Wake tie-ins were neat and I did like the puzzle boss designs, but for the most part this is just more Control and sometimes you hold up a light to open doors. 7/10

60. We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie
I played the original game years ago but this is the first time I've touched the sequel. It's basically the first game but with a more varied set of objectives and slightly better designed maps. 8/10

61. MyHouse.wad
I cleared this really fast becuase I watched multiple videos about this mod beforehand, including a three hour breakdown on how everything in the map is coded, before thinking "hey maybe I should actually play this myself instead of spending more time watching videos about the mod than it would take to play it". I love everything about the design of this, it's like House of Leaves + Backrooms + Yume Nikki.

I also appreciate the "Nightmare" mode difficulty which doesn't really take away anything that makes the mod cool, it basically serves as a "I'm not used to playing Doom/I'm not here to play Doom, I'm just here for a cool horror game" difficulty, making things easier by toning down combat while leaving everything else intact. 9/10

62. Eigengrau
A constantly inventive SHMUP that keeps throwing new gameplay concepts at you from beginning to end. It's a bit long to approach from a "1cc, go for a high score" perspective, but it's a lot of fun just to sit down and play through it casually. 9/10

63. Alan Wake 2
See this post here for my comments on Alan Wake 2. 10/10

64. The Exit 8
Fun little "spot the difference" game. I wish it was longer. 9/10

65. Fate/Extra CCC
This game is a total mess. It is a turn based dungeon crawler RPG with a total of 20 floors. It's also Type Moon visual novel with an obscenely large script that blends romance, comedy, drama, fantasy, science fiction, horror, and historical fiction. You will often spend more time in story cutscenes while going through a floor than you will actually walking around and fighting things. It's also a late era PSP that rode the "softcore anime game" trend that was common to the system, and it has nude images to collect for most of the female characters (and also the two male player companion Servants). If you want to see 100% of the content in the game, you need to play through it at least four times, because the game has four different options for your Servant character who does all your fighting for you. There's also a true route that requires hitting around 15 or so flags throughout the entire game that adds several hours of additional cutscenes. Several of these flags are almost impossible to set without a guide, although the game will offer direction on what to do in NG+.

I spent 10 years waiting to play this game and loved every minute of it. I played through the game three times. I did standard playthroughs with Saber and Caster, then one final playthrough with Gilgamesh while hitting all the CCC flags so I could reload for the true ending at the end of the game. 10/10

66. First Encounters
I bought a Meta Quest 3 and this is a short tech demo to showcase its mixed reality tech. It's a game where little bouncy colored creatures come pouring out of your walls. Shooting them in chains by color increases your score. It's pretty fun and shows how the tech can be really neat, but not enough to play more than once IMO. 7/10

67. Resident Evil 4 VR
Holy crap am I sold on VR after playing this. This might be the most fun I've ever had playing RE4 and I've played this game dozens of times across four different platforms. 10/10

68. Half-Life: Alyx
About as good as everyone keeps saying it is. Hopefully that HL3 tease at the end won't turn out to be vaporware again. 10/10

69. C17YSCAPE
A mod pack for Half-Life: Alyx consisting of two levels.

Good stuff: The mapper tried to fit a little of everything in here and mostly did a solid job of it. You have various Combine encounters, some puzzle solving (including one type that I believe may have been cut from the main game or modded in somehow), vent crawling (which is strangely absent in the main game), dark areas, and so on. The Combine encounters try some situations that weren't in the main game, like more vertical encounters where you fight them from above or below, or places where you're attacked from both ahead and behind you.

Bad stuff: The first map gives you a bunch of upgrade materials but it's really only enough to buy two small upgrades, so you end up just going with the reflex sights for pistol and SMG, and there's no upgrade items or available upgrades after that. Ammunition drops are so stingy that I had to drop the difficulty down to easy just to kill enemies before running out, and the very end is particularly bad at this where the only additional ammunition you'll be able to find during the final fight is pistol ammo.

8/10

DS/3DS
Persona Q2

SNES Classic
Several games in here. Especially I've never played Secret of Mana and still haven't tried out Star Fox 2

PC
Dragon Quest 11 S
Pillars of Eternity 2
Wasteland 2
Wasteland 3
Divinity: Original Sin
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Higurashi Hou 2 through 8 (paused midway through 2)
Full Metal Daemon Muramasa
Gahkthun of the Golden Lightning (I have been making extremely slow progress on this one for YEARS, thankfully its extremely episodic with memorable characters so I can just pick it back up whenever)
Wonderful Everyday
Touhou 16, 17, and 18
Hitman
Hitman 2
Hitman 3
System Shock: Enhanced Edition
Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace (apparently I have this on Steam but I forget it existed)
Rewrite+
Root Double
A ton of games in the Mega Drive collection that I wanna try out
Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
Broken Age
World's End Club
Muv Luv Alternative (official release, I'm like 3/4ths through it)
Chaos; Child

Switch
No More Heroes 3
~~New Pokemon Snap~~
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
Splatoon 2 (main story)
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Ring Fit Adventure (I really gotta work out, been totally out of it for like the last year)
Trials of Mana
Mario 3D World: Bower's Fury

PS5
Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition
Returnal

PS4
God of War
Spider-Man
Until Dawn
The House in Fata Morgana: Reincarnation
Danganronpa V3
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen (I've played the PC release 10 years ago)
Dragon Quest Builders 2
Catherine: Full Body
Shenmue
Shenmue II
Final Fantasy VII Remake (I think the PS5 upgrade is free though?)
Yakuza 3
Yakuza 4
Yakuza 5
Yakuza 6
Code: Realize - Windertide Miracles (I have like 2/3rds of the stories in this finished but never got around to completing it)
Punch Line

Mobile
Polishing off Nier Reincarnation's first part at which point I will probably delete the game

Past years
2022

NMFried · Jan 1, 2023

Currently Playing:

Persona 5 Royal (Nintendo Switch)
Cyberpunk 2077 (PlayStation 5)

Completed (28/52):

Pentiment / Obsidian Entertainment | Xbox Series X | ★★★★★
God of War: Ragnarok / Sony Santa Monica | PlayStation 5 | ★★★★☆
Marvel SNAP: Savage Land / Second Dinner | iOS | ★★★☆☆
Fire Emblem Engage / Intelligent Systems | Nintendo Switch | ★★★☆☆
Metroid Prime Remastered / Retro Studios | Nintendo Switch | ★★★★★
Dead Space / Motive Studio | PlayStation 5 | ★★★☆☆
Marvel SNAP: Into the Quantum Realm / Second Dinner | iOS | ★☆☆☆☆
Marvel SNAP: Days of Future Past / Second Dinner | iOS | ★★★☆☆
TRON: Identity / Mike Bithell | Nintendo Switch | ★★★★★
TRON: Identity / Mike Bithell | Nintendo Switch | ★★★★★
Marvel SNAP: Animals Assemble / Second Dinner | iOS | ★☆☆☆☆
Resident Evil 4 / Capcom | PlayStation 5 | ★★★★☆
Marvel SNAP: Guardians' Greatest Hits / Second Dinner | iOS | ★★★☆☆
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor / Respawn Entertainment | Xbox Series X | ★★★☆☆
Marvel SNAP: Spider-Versus / Second Dinner | iOS | ★★★☆☆
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Battle Assault / NatsumeAtari | Analogue Pocket | ★★☆☆☆
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes Definitive Edition / Capybara Games | Nintendo Switch | ★★★☆☆
Marvel SNAP: Rise of the Phoenix / Second Dinner | iOS | ★☆☆☆☆
Marvel SNAP: Big in Japan / Second Dinner | iOS | ★★★☆☆
Starfield / Bethesda Game Studios | Xbox Series X | ★★☆☆☆
Marvel SNAP: Loki For All Time / Second Dinner | iOS | ★★★★☆
Disney Illusion Island / Dlala Studios | Nintendo Switch | ★★★☆☆
Marvel's Spider-Man: Silver Lining / Insomniac Games | PlayStation 5 | ★★☆☆☆
Cyberpunk 2077 / CD Projekt Red | PlayStation 5 | ★★★★★
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 / Insomniac Games | PlayStation 5 | ★★★★☆
Marvel SNAP: Bloodstone / Second Dinner | iOS | ★★☆☆☆
Jusant / Don't Nod | Xbox Series X | ★★★★☆
Super Mario RPG / ArtePiazza | Nintendo Switch | ★★★★☆

Past Years
2022 - 37 games
2021 - 27 games
2020 - 26 games
2019 - 24 games
2018 - 33 games
2017 - 52 games

Cheat Code · Jan 1, 2023

Reserved.

Need to put up my last batch for December 2022, but looking forward to breaking my record this year.

Game Count: 25
100%/Platinum Count: 22

So this is a pretty interesting one. The concept of erasing memories to "fix" somebody's life is a cool concept, but I don't think it's very well executed here. I think the issue stems from the mutliple choice, very static progression of choosing a memory to delete, as either it's incredibly easy to spot which one is correct, or you're just pissing into the wind.

As this is what I think is a first-time solo dev project, it's an ok start, and the core concept of the game is intriguing enough that I think it can be developed further. It is also super short and cheap, so if you are intrigued it's probably worth ago, as some of the story beats are engaging.

Actually surprisingly solid for what I was worried could be just one of those games that gets thrown out onto PS Store without any care. It's a pretty compelling puzzle game, similar in vein to Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, which a bunch of different challenges and puzzles to work out.

Puzzles range from basic to absolute horseshit, and it swings pretty wildly, without a consistent difficulty progression. It's also quite short, but this is also somewhat in it's favour, as you do get to the point of repeated puzzles later on. Definitely worth a go though, especially as it's cheap.

So I went into this expected a Captain Toad-esque diorama puzzle game. It doesn't actually play like Captain Toad at all, and it's moreso a point and click puzzle game with a little bit of physics puzzling in there too. Bunch of different levels in steadily increasing difficulty to navigate your eyeball freak robot through.

Unfortunately, it's pretty wonky, and the dodgy camera and controls make the game harder than it should be, as it makes it difficult to see passages and move to certain places at the right time, especially when moving platforms come into play. It's pretty charming though, and has a great style.

Why I decided to play this series in reverse order, I don't know. I also thought these games were a shitpost, but then it turns out they were put out by an actual Japanese studio. Then, in another twist, turns out the studio was actually shitposting anyway, which is pretty funny.

Not much to say though, it's an easy, silly escape room game where instead of searching for a Nintendo DS, you are looking for a hiding spot. Some of the gameovers and solutions are pretty funny, but the gameplay is pretty much just something you do to see the funny cutscenes.

A physics platformer in the vein of I Am Bread, but significantly easier and for whatever reason more story driven. It's ok though, the controls aren't unbareable like Bossa games, and some of the worlds you go through are nicely put together and there is a bit of challenge here and there.

Some of the levels are blatant filler but some go on for much longer, and there are a couple of levels that require perfect timing on moving your noodle which took me far too many tries. In the end, though, I found it pretty charming. Worth a look if you are into silly games.

The love of a Mii and Minecraft Steve told in a game. I actually didn't anticipate such a clever puzzle game nestled in here, I assumed it would be narrative first, gameplay second, but they are balanced really well and the breaks in the puzzles to focus on character development and storytelling are a nice reprieve and don't feel like they ruin the pacing.

New mechanics are interspersed throughout the chapters, as standard for a puzzle game, and there are also a couple of bonus worlds with their own dedicated mechanics. The narrative is also a pretty engaging story about long-distance relationships, that is definitely sweeter than it is cheesy.

I mean, it's the same thing as the pudding one. Can't really change the rating when the games are borderline identical.

So this one I think is nearly very good, but ruins itself by introducing physics puzzles and massively overcomplicating the game, to a point where I wasn't particularly engaged as the puzzles became less about figuring out a clever way to proceed and moreso about working out the 1 very specific route you have to take, and the 1 specific way you have to manipulate the physics objects.

The first 4 worlds are pretty great though, and the Escher-esque artstyle and overall gimmick of the game are great. I probably wouldn't push through the last levels of the game though, they are super tedious and don't really do anything unique.

So this is basically identical to the first game, except it's set in an Office US parody for some reason. This massively limits the fun, creative level design that the first game had, as everything is isolated to the one environment with more of a focus on doing a sitcom tribute act.

As I have no emotional attachment to The Office, I didn't really care for this one, and would've preferred another adventure through some new wacky worlds. You might like this more if your an Office US fan.

Pretty basic game here, run left and right and don't die. While it sounds really easy (and is at the beginning) it rapidly drives up the difficulty and actually becomes an engaging twitch action game. There's also a few different modes, like competitive 1v99 battle royale and survival, although bizzarely none of them are actually multiplayer.

The only multiplayer is split screen survival, which is still fun but limited. There's also a pseudo-campaign of sorts where you can play to unlock funny characters, like a penguin or a man on a bike.

Probably the best escape room video game that's out there at the moment (at least from what I've played). You can tell that the developers are big fans of escape rooms in general, and there's a lot of care in the puzzle design and rooms they take place in. Nothing ever feels bullshit or impossible to work out, with a bit of effort and time you can crack most of the puzzles, even the later ones.

I also didn't mind the characters and basic storyline that encompasses all of the different puzzle rooms. Pretty base level stuff, but it doesn't interfere with the game and the voice acting is pretty good. Looking forward to the DLC and the apparent randomly generated level mode.

I'm actually annoyed this game isn't more popular. Not necessarily because it's the best game of all time and a hidden gem, but because the platinum is complete horseshit and it looks common because barely anyone has played this game.

It is genuinely a good game though. It's basically a boss rush where you kick a ball at a bunch of different shapes until they explode. Each boss has a distinct gimmick and the majority are fair and encourage some light twitch gameplay and clever use of the combat mechanics. Surprised this one hasn't picked up more.

So this one was a pretty major disappointment. I was immediately interested and grabbed it when it released, because I liked the style of the game and I was on a bit of a puzzle/adventure game kick. Turns out this is little more than a chapter 1, and could even be passed of as a demo.

The puzzles either make zero sense or are trivial. This is not helped by the poor translation, which I thought was funny at first (there is a cat called Lagsagna and I'm still not sure if that's on purpose or not) but eventually interferes with actually understanding what you are meant to do. This isn't helped by the game having no traditional movement and constant loading. Made it a bit of a slog.

A puzzle game where you you walk backwards and forwards doesn't sound particularly interesting, but the game actually makes pretty clever use of it's mechanics, the way you can manipulate the world around you is really cool. Most of the puzzle design is fair and makes complete sense, although there are a couple of roadblocks that completely stumped me.

It's also definitely worth highlighting the silent narrative, which does a great job of portraying the characters and their lives, with a fantastic ending that still pops into my head. If you have PS+ Extra definitely download this.

Not much to say here, it's a short, speedy platformer that controls competently and has a decent pixel art style. Most platformer fans have probably played a billion games like this, and it doesn't do anything knew, but it's solid and kept me occupied for an evening, so who am I to complain.

Except that it didn't register any progress I made across like 20 levels so I had to do them all again. No I idea how that happened but the levels are so quick it didn't really matter.

This game taught me that I have no fucking patience whatsoever, and while I don't mind a narratively driven game, having characters talk at you for like 6 hours isn't something I particularly enjoyed (I know it's a visual novel but I thought the barista side of things would be more prevalent).

The character arcs are also just incredibly predictable and you'll realise the character's eventual fates basically as soon as you meet them. Nothing surprised me, or really engaged me. Even the final big reveal was just a WTF because it made no sense whatsoever. However, even though it is boring, it is still well written and the art is great. Actual visual novel fans probably LOVE this game.

This game sucks ass. It's Clustertruck combined with snakes. The physics are completely broken and getting 420 segments for the platinum trophy ruined my weekend. Don't play this.

You gotta pay respect to the classics, apparently. However, this game is so archaic and borderline impossible to play, I don't understand how it became such a classic game. I guess it's probably balanced around 2 player mode, but playing this single-player was just constant frustration that was only balanced out by having infinite lives.

I'm glad I wasn't gaming in the 80s.

So I love Silent Scope, and I thought this would be a quirky version of Silent Scope, which it kinda is. The actual 15 campaign levels are just a case of finding the thing you are meant to kill, and then making sure you actually hit them with your rifle swaying like its made of bread.

A major annoyance is the levels where you have to wait for way too long for a target to appear and some random place across the giant level, making the game more trial and error than a challenge. This is also prevalent in the "Find" mode, which is basically all luck and ruined my day. I probably would recommend against playing this.

Interesting idea for a core mechanic, with the world you cannot see shifting and changing, which eventually begins to light your way forward. I think they missed a trick not using this idea in a horror game though, in which I think it would be much more effective, and in the end it's just a mish-mash of pseudo-surrealism.

Also because the level morphs are random it makes certain levels (where you have to generate a path) take ages, as you have to keep spinning around until something appears that will actually help you progress. Wasn't a fan of that.

So I immediately assumed, because of the tone of the screenshots and the trailers, that this would be very much a charming, casual puzzle game in the vein of something like Unpacking. Unfortunately, it's actually a giant pain in the ass, with some of the later levels having some of the worst ideas I've ever seen in a puzzle game.

Doing a jigsaw is one thing, doing a jigsaw with no reference, no discernible pattern and having all the pieces jumbled up is another. There are also too many colour puzzles without any colour-blind options, which was not great for me. This review also seems massively negative but the game was actually a decent time for most of it, the late game did leave a sour taste, though.

So upon finding out about Birth, I thought it would be a good idea to check out Madison Karrh's previous output before I picked it up, and on reflection, I recommend everyone does the same. It's not so much that her initial games were insanely good or anything, but you see a very clear progression of the dev's talent, with the art, puzzle design and pacing continuously getting better.

This is probably the weirdest of her 3 games, and definitely has the most frustrating puzzles, but it's a trippy adventure accentuated by Madison's very distinct artstyle, which perfectly combines cute palettes and drawing styles with grotesque subjects. It's also free so you can immediately get an idea of what you're getting into with these game.

With this you can immediately see the improvement from Whimsy. Whilst it's still super short, actually about the same length, every element of the game's design is improved. You'll definitely see a lot of familiar puzzles from Whimsy, but also some new ideas.

The narrative is also stronger here, with a great ending that tops off an already weird and surreal story. I'd definitely play this, either on it's own or definitely before playing Birth.

I wouldn't say this is Madison Karrh's magnum opus as such, I think she can still go even further, but this does feel like a sort of culmination of her continual improvement, not only in her artwork but also in her gameplay, puzzle and narrative design. It's probably the most "simple" of her games, but this is offset by a richer variety in environments and ideas.

The game is definitely shorter than I would've wanted it to be, as I was finding the actual gameplay cycle really engaging, and I think there is definitely room for a bigger game here, but what I did play was really great, and in keeping consistency with her previous work, has a great ending.

So obviously this game is somewhat questionable in making suicide a funny joke rather than a very serious issue, but I think it is offset by the blatant absurdity of it's design offsets that. The entire plot is stopping yourself from spilling your beer while your asleep, it's really not that deep.

As a puzzle game, it's a funny idea, having to figure out a way to kill yourself in a variety of levels. A lot of the levels are little tributes, either to games, TV or film, and while some of them drag on a bit too long, most of them are pretty good. The controls are definitely a bit wonky though, you are never too confident in what you are doing.

Wesker · Jan 1, 2023

I'll do my best again this year.

52 games beaten

2022 post

Spacejaws · Jan 1, 2023

I guess maybe I'll give this a go, my backlog needs something like this.

53/52!

1. Pathfinder: Kingmaker
08.01.2023 - 435 Hours - PS5 - 9/10

Took me over a year to finally beat this game (and on the backlog longer) but it is absolutely deserves to be hearlded as one of the best CRPG's. Proper RPG mechanics, lots of systems intermingling with each other, lots of ways to play and things to discover. Hugley addicitive exploring the overworld, tons of loot to find along with great companions and an engrossing story with tons of lore and rich with quests. Additionally the art is gorgeous and the OST has been a joy to listen to on the way to work in the mornings.

I would have given this a 10 except for a few blemishes, the main one being the absolute tragic state of the PS4 game. It would have been unusual for the game not to crash at least twice during any session, long ass save times made me turn off autosave, load times are brutal, lots of bugs some of them really dumb like I decided to start levelling my inquisitor as a mage but found I couldn't take them to level 2 as they had already learned all level 1 mage spells and the level up menu would not proceed until a spell was selected which I couldn't do so I wasted a damn level on that. Varnholds lot also had a moment where speaking to one specific NPC would...go back to the main menu! Not a crash just literally return to the menu if I spoke to them, below is the unfortunate side effect of curing Baleful Polymorph.

Menu UI and general toolbars leave a lot to be desired too, often my inputs would be ignored and the AI is tough to work with. A number of times I woukd start up a heal speel just to watch the time go from 3 to 1 second and my cleric drop the spell and start moving in to attack someone and watch my character die. Additionally I think the game balance is a bit fucked. I had to turn down the difficulty to Story Mode 3 times, 2 of them for end game fights

Wriggling Man and Lantern King. Also did it for Spawn if Rovaguug

Combat in the later game gets a bit...unfun. so many enemies apply stat damage which has no protection against and you just have to heal it afterwards. At the end of the game I felt I was spending a ton of time ressurecting and applying restoration to remove stat damage that it became a bit frustrating, especially when dealing with the horrible UI, sometimes hotbars would just completely wipe and often would be sorting out my party one at a time and then the game would crash. 2 of those late game bosses as well just had a habit of summoning lots of mooks, casting dispel and also having high saving throws for dispel in return which made them a bit unfun and after 400 hours I really did not want to be stuck on a fight for hours.

Speaking of Varnholds Lot, really enjoyed it too although it was a much smaller and more streamlined experience. I kinda liked the idea that we were not the main character but an NPC in their party with Maegar moving us around the map and deciding to rest and I wish they had actually leaned on that idea a bit more.

Out of all the CRPG renaissance games (Pillars, Divinity, Wasteland, Tyranny) this is without a doubt my favourite. I think a replay on PC will be nessecary in the future and hoping that most of the bugs are fixed there.

2. Resistance 3
15.01.2023 - 8h30m (game save time. Playtime likely much longer) - PS3 (Steam Deck and PS Vita/PS4/PS5 via PSPlus) - 8/10

I've always enjoyed the dead PS2/PS3 FPS but out of Killzone and Resistance I definelty got into the Resistance series more. I thought Resistance 2 was an excellent game especially the multiplayer and it made me wish I had jumped into these games sooner, playing them very late into the PS3's life. Resistance 3 however I completely missed, and only started playing it once I got a PS Vita and my save file has been played via Streaming on Vita, PS4, PS5, PC and finially finished it on Steam Deck. Even via streaming it plays very well and has a incredibly satsifying array of weaponry, the Bullseye is such a fun gun to use and my other favourite is the Magnum with the explosive alt fire. It's such a shame that some weapons have very limited ammo such as the magnum, shotgun and rocket launcher that I felt the need to kinda hold onto them until needed and often just never got used.

I do have one complaint though. The Auger. It's another interesting weapon with a twist that it can shoot through walls and does more damage the more objects it passes through. It's a series staple but it also feels like a damn crutch. The game even on normal can be quite punishing and I did find myself relying on the Auger a few times to just sit in cover and clear a room. I had to stop because its a very boring way to play and woukd advise avoiding it if you can.

Ultimately the Resistance games are in the same category as other specticale FPS of the time like Call of Duty and Halo etc and uses a lot of the same tropes but at the same time I think it just does it very well. The acts are all pretty unique and do a great job showing you a little piece of the world while also shaking up the system by either throwing in new weapons or taking them all away or encouraging a certain playstyle.

My big regret is missing the online for this as campaign coop could have been a blast. I also really enjoyed going back to a shooter with health kits and weapon wheels. Hide in cover regenerating health is like the modern equivalent of spamming the Auger. It feels safe and encourages a lame playstyle. This game was very challenging and I loved it!

Fantastic game, glad I played through it and now wondering what the hell Sonys problem is not rereleasing both Killzone and Resistance series, getting new games, or at least make the series' available on PS Plus you nerds!

3. Star Wars Episode 1: Racer
18.01.2023 - PS5 - 8 hours - 10/10

One of my all time favourite games from my childhood and even today it still provides such an adrenaline rush along with fantastic tracks, designs, characters and music. It's obvious a lot of franchise love went into this with even small things like the CG cutscenes and racer backtalk adds so much flavour.

It's a speed demon of a game, where 80% of the time you are battling the track rather than your opponents and in a way that's a flaw. As the tracks get more complex and you continously upgrade your pod the other racers only feel like a threat if you crash and burn too much. There's a few tracks where if you take the wrong path it's kinda game over, which can be rather frustrating but rewarding when you finally beat it, which again feels more like the track is the challenge rather than racers. It's a great feeling though, hurtling down these narrow stretches into weaving turns you just barely make. It's a real F Zero type experience. I also love all the different biomes (although fuck asteroids) and love how complex and winding with alternative routes some of them become.

While I give it a 10/10 for personal enjoyment, I do recognize there's some changes that could be made. It's a bit short and I really wish the tournament mode was per racer rather than shared, including the upgrades. This made me tend to just stick to whatever racer works and never really try the others unless I was feeling frisky. Once the races are completed there's no need other than some fun. Being able to repeat tournament with the other racers back to the startling line and no upgrades and unique upgrades to them could have increased the longevity.

I played the port on PS5, platinumed it too because damn I love this game, but I must admit I prefer the old Steam copy better. Not sure what it is but something seems off with the port, aspect ratio or UI or camera positions or something. It's a dream to play on the Steam Deck and I'm halfway through all the tournaments there and absolutely a better place to play it. I think Asypr missed a trick by not having online multiplayer as it could have been great and I'm going to look into the multiplayer on Steam to see what hoops I would need to jump through and if there's anyone playing as that could be a super cool experience.

Ultimately, one of the top Star Wars games and top racers for me. I really wish they took it a step further with the racing genre and had you racing in X Wings or Swoop Bikes through cities. I've never played the sequel, Racer Revenge? But will jump on it soon.

4. Stray
22.01.2023 - PS5 - 8 hours - 8/10

Fantastic game. I think this is absolutely a style over substance thing here as the game itself is very simple but exploring it's world and unraveling it's mystery with the charm of it's NPCs and gorgeously realised world it really is deserving of it's acclaim. I suppose a lot of indies go the other way. They have deep gameplay with wikis of mechanics but the visuals take a hit. This feels like the opposite and to be honest it's refreshing to just play a nice story in a couple of sessions and the way the world looks and feels really drags you in.

Even with how easy the world is there are some intense and pretty freaky moments, a whole mix of emotions in here. I suppose my biggest complaint is that the sidequesting at the start kinda goes away later and I feel their could have been more of it, especially in the last town.

5. Shadow of the Colossus Remake
25.01.2023 - PS5 - 9 hours - 10/10

As a huge fan of the original I just can't really say anything other than this is the same but prettier. It's still such a dreamlike, fairytale like game that warms me to the bone playing. To me this is a Miyazaki anime in game form. It hits so many high notes in everything it does and Bluepoint have done an amazing job with the visuals I can't really see myself ever playing the original again. This game looks like it puts some current titles to shame.

6. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith
03.02.2023 - Steam - 17 hours - 7/10

The return of our boy Kyle Katarn! Kinda! I only got round to playing Dark Forces and Dark Forces 2 over the last few years after seeing clips of them when I was younger and being envious of those who owned them. They seemed like proper Star Wars adventures and the closest I had at the time was Shadows of the Empire which I still loved to death.

I'd started Jedi Knight 2 a few times and not really sure why I dropped it, but after going back to Dark Forces I was in love with the series again. The maps are huge, open areas with puzzles and little hidden buttons you run past 20 times cursing. Weapon variety is fantastic and the introduction of the lightsaber and even lightsaber battles with force skill trees being tied to unlocking secrets is a great inclusion, favouring Light Side or Dark Side powers can have an outcome on your game and there are even multiple endings. Along comes Mystery of the Sith, an expansion but I've decided to include it as it runs as it's own app and it does truely feel like a mini sequel to Dark Forces 2, with more levels than other full releases. 14 levels plus a downloabable bonus level, you play as Kyle Katarn before it shifts to Mara Jade, a character who I really enjoyed getting centre stage and it's made me wonder if I would rather see her return more than Kyle Katarn.

The game itself still has all the hallmarks of Dark Forces 2 and I enjoyed a ton of it...up until the very last levels. They force you to use a lightsaber only, lots of fast and hard hitting enemies, some ranged and difficult to avoid along and if you do not have the paticular force powers that help you in the level such as Force Absorb it can be a real struggle like it was for me. Plus throw in 2 tough Dark Jedi fights, one of them in an incredibly awkard spot and hard to maneuver. In fact there are a ton of very fast, very hard hitting enemies that punish hard in close range but can leap at you from a distance and kill you in two hits in also very tight spots. On occasion this last level throws 3 of them at you at a time and they need multiple lightsaber strikes and for some reason my force lighting wouldn't hit them, force persuasion which is supposed to hide you wouldn't work on them and my force projection which sends a decoy they would ignore. It felt like my choices were all useless in the last levels and I ended up cheesing them by running away hitting them with 3 lightsaber throws and even quicksaving after every hit to avoid as much damage as possible.

I knocked a few points off for the frustration in the last few levels which I thought were the weakest except the final encounter. I really loved Mara Jade and many of the levels are really cool like being onboard a New Republic ship under attack or hunting down scum in a spaceport. There is also a downloadable Bespin level where you play as Luke! Still hosted by online it was a secret on release and it's a nice extra with some twists. I still love all the designs, the blocky ass polys, the enemy designs, the ships, the levels and both Kyle Katarn and Mara Jade are badass.

7. Returnal
09.02.2023 - PS5 - 83 hours - 10/10

Arguable I've beaten this game many times but this is the first time going back to it since the Tower and Coop DLC were released.

Absolutely mindblowing game. One of my favourite in decades. I'm not much of a fan of Rougelikes and I'm glad this favours more on the 'Lite' side.
Rather than being completely procedurally randomized the rooms themselves are just sort of reordered from a pool so even though the layout of things changed I could learn to know what to expect and never got bored of the maps or found them bland. The gameplay is extremely tight, with deaths feeling fair and what went wrong painstakingly obvious, even if that is just there were too many bullets flying my way.

The games weapon trait system is a pretty good way to make the player feel like they are getting better without too much habdholding or seemingly grinding. The weapon traits themselves are insanely powerful and change any weapon from being pretty ho hum to absolute killers. I would say every weapon is fun to use once upgraded and the trait combinations even make some guns work very different making every run fresh. The traits are permanently leveled up so when you whip out a Hollowseeker with Portals you really know it, and will want it everytime, but even so the challenge remains.

After the tower I returned to picking up the last few bits and pieces for the platinum. A couple of scout logs and some ciphers. Randomness kinda hurts this part of the game, but while I started expecting a slog, I actually had tons of fun blitzing through the levels, not caring about upgrades and just checking every room for the collectibles. I started getting more confident and challenging the harder enemies and the bosses with barely anything but base health and whatever weapon I picked up along the way. I got slapped hard and often but it took me back to where I spent a week running the game to beat it eventually then get all the sun dials to experience a little snippet more of the story.

The story itself reminds me a lot of Bloodbornes atmosphere. Unsettling and dreamlike. The devs have said it's all in her head and it's all real which brings up so many questions. There's a tragic character in here, mahbe even an irredeemable one, possible stuck in some kind of loss purgatory by an unknown terror feeding on it. I could read the story theories on it all day and would love more from Housemaque. The connection to Don't Fear the Reaper and how it finds itself into the game is pure genius.

On top of all this...visually it's fantastic! I really wish Photo Mode was available on release as well as coop which I had a few goes at to help others but kinda sad it doesn't let you unlock collectibles.

All in all, amazing game, every minute is thrilling, fantastic performance by Jane Elizabeth Perry which I'm not sure if she got a nomination or a win but deserves recognition, OST perfectly compliments the game and the story is such a wonderful mystery.

8. Splinter Cell
15.02.2023 - 22h - Steam - 8/10

After decades of telling myself I will finally get into Splinter Cell, 2023 is the year I made that happen! So many classic series I have either scraped the surface of missed entirely. I've played the opening level of this and Chaos Theory so many times but never got much further and I don't know why. Possibly it's tone doesn't gel with me, trying to be serious but still kinda feels cartoonish in a way. I also kinda bummed when playing it that even though it's a stealth game, it really wants you to take everyone out, often key codes and data sticks on enemies, I foubd little reason to just sneak past which is something I enjoy in stealth games. The option to be a ghost which I kinda thought Splinter Cell always was and it certainly has segments that are designed for it but the rewards for taking people out are kinda great. Lots of lore tidbits and lovely health packs which are crucial if the game throws you into an action sequence.

I'm also kinda suprised how little I needed to use the unique features that were sort of the post child for Splinter Cell. Using the splits in short passages, creeping along a hanging pipe, the door camera (I found this useful once) I honestly thought it was a shame I didn't find more places to use these tools. Mostly just popping lights and getting headshots. Frustratingly the game also likes to have enemy walk speeds be just a little faster than your stealth speed and with plenty of suoer frustrating patterns where enemies turn just as you reach them. Happens so godamn often they absolutely timed this shit to make sure you struggled to reach enemies before they walked off or turned round etc.

Altogether though I really enjoyed it, and I forget at times how old it is as it's got a lot going for it. Sam Fisher comes across as a bit of a gruff cunt I thought but I think thats what they were going for. It looks pretty good too with the fixes installed and the levels are all pretty interesting puzzles if a bit linear. The story itself just feels a bit flag waving american patriotism which just feels out of place today but whatever. Looking forward to playing more! Still doesn't hold a candle to MGS though 😀

9. Nioh
07.03.2023 - 150h - Steam - 9/10

Been a bit of a slow month currently and this guy is a big cause of that. I started the save in 2018 and have only just got round to finishing it. Loved it...up until the DLC. Everything in the main game felt very satisfying and rewarding but once the DLC hit it took a massive jump in difficulty. My mage focused character was now getting one shot by multiple moves and increasing aggressive enemies to the point I had to start respecing into a melee build. Some bosses have amazing large healthy pools and defense and I had to spend hours upon hours grinding levels and weapons.

The introduction of the divine gear stuff soured me, as it always seemed the gear that was dropping in the level did not match the difficulty of the area, and with me grinding I then kinda started being bothered if I was just overlevelling for a challenge or if I was actually underlevelled as it's kinda hard to get a consensus from the community what level and gear you should be at. Most comments just say level is meaningless at that point in the game with the usual veiled bragging of beating the level 100 item levels lower than the suggested level. The loot systems in the entire game are mostly full of trash but at least in the main game higher item level means probably better. Divine gear gets a bit messier and there are systems to increase your gear so while I was running around with +6's, the area was only dropping +2's and it mean every loot drop was worthless to me except resources to eventually increase my +6 to +7 in a forge system, spending money, dismantling weapons then farming the gear again. It's not exactly my thing and I think it's a real shame that those systems weren't left for after main game + DLC, because what's there is great. A colourful band of characters, lots of weapon variety and skills trees, unique playstyles to build, kodama hunting is kinda bliss and great bosses.

It's stuffed into a fairly bloated game however. I stopped doing the sub missions at the last rejoin because they were moslty reskins or unfun gauntlets and I really just wanted to beat this game. I toyed with giving it a lower score because what should have been the last quarter / third, the DLC, almost took me the same amount of time as the main game from simply grinding and struggling and worrying.

Looking forward to playing Nioh 2 which I've heard is a better game in everyway but ultimately, I really enjoyed Nioh but the post game and DLC does cater for a different type of player than me. Kinda like watching a ballet then in the third act it becomes a UFC match. I was ready to peace out which is criminal as the expansions have a lot of good content under all the numbers. Sadly however, due to the length of the game and the length of time it took me to beat it, I've forgotton so much of it...some of my older pictures too on my laptop look like a damn PS2 game which is kinda funny.

10. Halo 3
15.04.2023 - PC - 4.5 hours - 8/10

I've never been a massive Halo head, I always been more enamored by Gears of War rather than Halo for Xbox but I've always enjoyed playing them Coop. The unique slow floaty movement style and weapons that pack a punch with satisfying enemy reactions I think have always made me enjoy Halo and the sci-fi world around it is always intriguing, but it's story and characters have never gripped me and the more I find about about it the more I just kinda meh on it as a whole.

Playing through these games with a group of people is however such a fun time. So many stupid moment to laugh at and not take the game too seriously I had a total blast and never expected to beat it in one session which kinda reminded me how short Halo 3 really is. Last last few missions being full of Flood kinda sours things and holy shit is the escape sequence at the end still buggy as all shit while playing multiplayer. Least generous portion of the game with checkpoints yet will happy phase you through solid metal and kill you repeatedly or platforms will only start falling after you are on them, it was some janky shit. But all in all it's a lot of fun, lush enviroments, sweet weapon variety and awesome enemies. I feel like Halo 3 doesn't really have that much level variation, however the levels it does have are pretty great and generaly look great.

11. Final Fantasy VII: Remake
15.04.2023 - 102 Hours - PS5 - 6/10

i just finished playing Intermission and I have very mixed feelings about this game. Final Fantasy VII holds a special place in my heart as my first JRPG, the game that drove me to getting a working gaming PC, introducing me to anime and pretty much being one of my favourite games of all time.

This game though...isn't it. They have nailed so much like the visuals and the characters, bar some exceptions(I think Tifa plays way more like a damsel than the tough, streetsmart, ass kicker I pictured), weirdly enough all the side characters however look like the came out flof GAP and don't really look like they fit in this punk, dystopian world and the main cast look so out of place next to them.

in general, my biggest issues is that much of the new content, is just fucking trash. The Midgar HQ sequence at the end is completely drained of all atmosphere, wall market having Johnny take center stage and toss in more combat because well the game is about combat I guess fuck everything else.

The combat itself was fun at first but I don't enjoy the focus on staggering, the punped health bars, battles that took 5 minutes before now take 20 which is crazy because changing from turnbased to realtime usually means the opposite. I...didn't enjoy it by the end and with the stretch to the end sequence I was fucking done and ready to uninstall especially once the Kingdom Hearts came in at the end. This should have been called FFVII: Midgar Stories and work as a one off side title tbh.

I actually liked some of the new content, the fleshing out of Avalanche crew was great, seeing more Jessie and stuff on the plate was cool too but then they added trash like Aeries saving Marlene the slowest way possible and stopping to talk to every character and Wall Market side quests and a sob story from Don Conero's henchman who is the most generic little dude that we are supposed to root for? (The Don however I thought was captured exactly right). Also introducing both Jenova and Sephiroth and having epic boss battles with them felt so wrong.

I can understand them saying this was too much game to pack into one package but what they gave us has about 30 hours of pure shite. This could have easily been 2 games. Dungeons are superficially made *Epic* I guess. Stuff that was just a fun jaunt between story beats became a slog. Hojos lab is a godamn mess and some bosses I struggled to understand wtf to do. Reno and Rude like to grab constantly and I found if you weren't attacking the ATB bar moved so fucking slow so your options were limited against enemies you are supposed to counter I guess? Throw in the lovely FFXV trend of whoever you control becomes the favourite target of all enemies means its pretty sucky to try and play as characters on the back foot like Aeries or Barret.

I just...have too many issues, and they outweigh the good. I don't think I'll ever play this again except maybe to take pretty pictures in it's terrible photo mode. I don't even want to talk about the ghosts...

That said I played Intermission afterwards and thought it was a really cute side story and does what the new content in the main game was aiming for better. Fleshing out the world a little from unique perspectives. Knowing this is all we will get from an FF7 remake is one of the biggest dissapointments in gaming for me and I don't think will ever be topped. This is like if J J Abrahams did a live action Berserk with on point casting but added tons of his own shit to it and threw out the source material but everyone fucking likes it and that becomes the bonified, Berserk, piece of media..it's kinda heartbreaking.

12. Demon's Souls Remake
16.04.2023 - 70 Hours - PS5 - 10/10

Not the first time I've beat this game, not the first time I've platinumed it either! Just finished it tonight on NG+ with the platinum and I'm still completely enamored with this game. Something about it's level design and atmosphere just makes it feel unique for me among souls games.

The only things I can fault the remake for are things that are kinda common complaints. Some artistic choices could have been made a little better like Boleraria looking more destroyed than decrepit for instance but on the whole I love all of the changes and also love that they stuck to the source and didn't try to change too much, even so I wish they had maybe added a few more types of armour or weapons and the weapons they did add could actually be upgraded because otherwise they are pointless. I also wish there was a respec and a re uh World Tendancy option as it's the only area I can definitely say has been handled worse due to no server World Tendancy meaning people don't have that variation in tendnancy from day to day which made the older game more of a living thing.

I don't think I would ever write off the original completely, and in fact many remakes lately have made me appreciate the originals more for being their own thing like Resident Evil 2 and FFVII Remake but this really gives it a run for it's money. A fantastic game given the visuals it deserves. I only wish they had really played with the tendancy stuff a bit more to help with the online community as currently, it really hurts people playing online.

13. Star Wars: Squadrons
20.04.2023 - 110 Hours - PC - 10/10

As a massive Rogue Squadron fan who has been dying for a return to the genre for some time, I can't say I was fully sold when I saw this revealed and it was first person only, a budget title and obviously from EA. Battlefront 2015 I really enjoyed but the space flight stuff that I was really excited for, fell flat. Battlefront 2 came along and was worse in everyway for me, but especially the ship combat which just felt so arcadey and digital with special move buttons etc it really didn't hit the mark for me.

I actually feel kinda bad it took me this long to finally beat this game. However...I jumped on it on release and just fucking loved it. I played a shit load of the multiplayer. Unlocked all the stuff, just really adored it. Wish it was more popular, truley believe it deserves to be more popular. The movement, how the ships feel, the nature and balance of the ship upgrade, unlock them at your leisure, everything kinda has a upside and downside so generally nothing is outright just OP, the designs are on point I just love how the game looks.

But...strangley enough I barely played the single player despite being such a huge Rogue Squadron fan. I saw reviews that said it was short and just ok which was fine it's a budget title I guess so I kinda expected the campaign to be so so. Now that I've finished it I can't believe I held off for so long. The story is one of the better Star Wars stories in decades. Not overly complicated but full of colourful characters with interesting stories and well voice acted. Has you jump between both factions and doesn't shy away from the Empire being evil overlords and in fact I feel is one of the better potrayals of The Empire as you talk to the crew and find out more of their backstories while your commander has a paticular grudge which I think is played really well.

The missions themselves are plenty varied, more in line with X-Wing series than Rogue Squadron which is fine and I think the proper stated influence. All campaigns take place in space but have varied locales and setpieces to make them unique. My only real complaint I'd say is something that started bothering me near the end is the UI sometimes the objective text is FUCKING HUGE. I had an objective and an optional objective and the text reached almost half of my screen and was there the entire damn time. Also playing on Vetran, all the way to the last mission and still the game pauses to remind me how to target a ships subsystems. I was just trying to destroy the fucking tractor beam on a Star Destroyer and the game thinks I've forgotten how to actually play the game. Kinda dumb but whatever.Might have been some settings I could have tweaked but nevermind. Happened a few times but it really reminded me about it in the last mission.

Ultimately, this was absolutely amazing I loved it. Would have given it a 10/10 if those last few things hadn't started to bother me so much. I really hope there is a sequel of some kind. Bigger and better and keep all the systems no steamlining.

14. Live A Live
01.05.2023 - 35 Hours - Switch - 9/10

This is a title I have always been really interested to try and I'm so glad I got to. It's such a unique spin on the 16bit RPGs of the time. Full of tropes and movie rip offs it's a total geek fest but in all good ways. I do wish they had somehow let you play the 16bit version as an option but at least it looks really well done, still has excellebt sprite work amongst it's reworked visuals. Plays a bit easy in general I'd say until the end but lots of variation in the special moves and playstyles..
I do wish they somehow denoted what was a special move or physical move though because even up until the end I couldn't gauge who to give what.

I still need to go back to it and maybe finish it off with some different characters but again I'm just so damn happy we got to play this and hope it's success opens up more room for just at least making games available in markets they wrre never released in.

Favourite levels were Imperial China, Prehistory, Far Future and Wild West.

15. Jurassic World Evolution
14.05.2023 - 90 Hours - PC - 8/10

I have wanted more dinosaur games since forever, I think there is an incredibly lack of them despite having amazing potental for games. Far Cry? Throw in dinosaurs. Resident Evil? Throw in dinosaurs. Tekken? Throw in dinosaurs. I can't think of many games that would not be better with some dinosaurs thrown in. I remember getting really excited when Jurassic World Evolution was announced, hoping for something maybe action, fps or adventure with the license. What I saw kinda disappointed me.
Not because I don't like park builders, or sims, I'm not a huge fan of them but one of my first PC games were Alpha Centurai and Theme Hospital and while I appreciate the genre I feel like I don't have the time or drive to play games these days without definitive end goals and complicated systems, and with the trailers and such I wasn't sure what would be that drive here.

I jumped in on sale and my god, what a fun ride. It's not complicated at all, very casual park building mechanics that while being worried at first about them being too complicated, I almost wish they were a little bit more at the end. The game does feel a bit like a casual park builder and isn't incredibly taxing as long as you keep some saves if everything goes tits up. The most frustrating thing was the storms. Some maps are pretty unfair with how damaging the storms are and even the storm protection building can only do so much. Pretty much before every storm I just tranqed al carnivores which made it a little easier but not always viable depending on the size of the park.

The game nails the aesthetic. It really nails the look of Jurassic Park/World. The jungle / tropical vibe, the buildings and best of all, the dinosaurs. Even on the Steam Deck, which handles this game great if you don't mind the battery hit, the dinosaurs look fantastic and I loved just taking snaps of them constantly either via the ranger vehicles, which by the way letting you drive is such a cool feature, or the capture mode. I had so much fun taking pictures of the dinosaurs that I really wish I had made them larger, less optimal enclosures just for photos sake. The way the viewing platforms works it rewards small enclosures and dinosaurs don't really mind as long as you meet their minimum. I wish there was somthing like if the enclosure was larger, you could increase population size or something. You can have a massive enclosure but if a dinosaur only wants a population of 3 it doesn't seem to matter how big the enclosure is. I also found the veiwing towers weird, they have a long range, narrower view and I guess a lower guest count but for some reason I couldn't really get many people to go in them even if they had a bunch of viewable dinosaurs. I just stopped using them.

Other little annoyances, path building can be odd sometimes where it doesn't really detect your path and snaps somewhere else. I wish you could build like a large, walkable area and plant buildings on like a concourse or something. Also having to manually refill all your enclosure was a bit weak, especially if you have a large park, trying to do that when some other event keeps happening. Having to work with paths off of paths sometimes was a bit rough when space got tight and you had to get creative in obectively ugly ways like paths coming in at odd angles desipite there being a path nearby but for some reason won't connect. Trying to do pathing for the tours and gyrospheres could also be cumbersome but I was using controller so maybe it's easier on KB/M. I did have an annoying bug on the very last DLC where I beat the missions but for some reason one Spinosaurus was stuck on "Releasing" from my arrival pad despite the lil gal being in her pen happy. I couldn't get rid of it and couldn't destroy the building so decided to end it there as one of my slots would always be taken up. Other than that I didn't experience any bugs except the occasional ranger squad who couldn't find there way to something until I commandered it and drove them to whatever needed resupply etc.

All in all, beatiful looking game, very satisfying gameplay loop, large variety of gorgeous dinos, mechanics not overbearing, plenty of content (along with the DLC with 2 and a bit new campaigns) and lots of movie authentic stuff. Even the original voice actors returned! At the same time maybe the mechanics are a bit simplistic and some of the construction such as gyrosphere paths can be a bit cumbersome. Also fuck the storms. I get their purpose but man did I not enjoy them. Or refilling enclosures that sucks too! Otherwise an excellent game, feels really authentic, one of the best dinosaur games in decades and I'm glad I jumped in when I did for all the content and went ahead and bought Evolution 2 immediately.

16. Assassin's Creed Origins
31.05.2023 - 125h - Steam Deck - 8/10

Finally! I've always been a fan of the Assassin's Creed series, which waned hard after 3, but I've always wanted to finish this one. People compared it to the Witcher 3, and well, it's pretty pale in comparison to it for me. At first, I really didn't enjoy the combat or the RPG and loot fest and it made me sideline the game for so long and even after returning to it and beating the DLC, it's still the worst part of the game and a huge step back for me.

The majority of the rest however is fantastic!Tge characters, world and story are great and really beautiful to explore. Scenes with Bayek and Aya together are excellent and the enviroment just felt so interesting that even though it was filled with guff, I loved exploring it and it looks absolutely gorgeous even on the Steam Deck. Some of my favourite areas were the places that didn't even have much like the massive temple in the desert or the small oasis in the middle of a massive gorge.

The side quests however, varying quality, some cutscenes and the staple Ubisoft 8 teams working in dark rooms not talking to each other where the continuity in the scenes seems off. Small stuff but it's annoying when the quality dips and takes you out the game. The loot grind is without a doubt a huge detriment. Endless gear 20 levels below your level it is ugly and shit. Additionally the combat, opting for less theatrics of it's predecessors, instead goes for some low budget Dark Souls thing and it's horrible too. Really big downgrade, totally unfun and spongey. I do appreciate massivley however how enemies don't reflect their archtypes to obviously now. I mean, they still do but there are more small variations in design and gear whereas Assassin's Creed for the longest time has red guy, big red guy you have to doge first, officer guy you have to counter first. It got pretty commical in Syndicate which felt like London was under attack by clones.

Oh and as someone who adored the future storyline this one's still shit. Oh fun.

Despite all that though the game is still absolutely fantastic! I'll be moving onto Oddessey soon and probably still take a year to finish it but I'm going to try and avoid doing any of the side fluff as I feel like I would have enjoyed this game more if I had ignored more of it.

Additionally, DLC1 not great (in some cases it feels like it was rushed), DLC2 pretty good but thought the ending was a bit unsatisfying.

17. Prey
20.06.2023 - 45 Hours - Steam Deck - 9/10

Another one that has been lingering on my to play list for some time. I started it once, made it through the opening and kinda gave up on it. I'll admit I was a bit soured at the name beibg repurposed for this as I loved the OG Prey.

Picked it back up and devoted some actual time to it and really started to enjoy it once Instarted getting those powers and weapons and got more powerful. I think before I got stuck on a technopath, and couldn't beat them and had to slink away and tried to focus on thenstory missions but the more I played, the more I enjoyed just exploring all the side missions and parts of the map. I loved travelling around the ship in zero-g that is so much fun!

It did sort of dip in quality when humans start becoming introduced. The game is very janky around them, sometimes repeating lines or line conflicting quest dialogue you've just been given - ie. Thank you for giving me X item. 2 seconds later oh wouldn't it be nice if I couod get X item etc. I think every human interaction had some kinda of massive jank with it. The ending sorta fizzled with me too, liked the concept but presentation a bit bleh which is a shame because the run up to it is great.

Fantastic game, get why people talk about it all the time. That said not exactly my favourite of the genre but gets a high score for being one of rhe few games letting you drive about in space.

18. Undertale
25.06.2023 - 11 Hours - Steam Deck - 10/10

I had never really understood the hype by seeing the screenshots of this game alone but always knew if it was something I dug my heels into I would understand. I've done that now and yup I understand. Very imaginative, sharp writing and just a wonderfully surreal story from start to finish. Had me engrossed right up until the end, despite appearing simplistic in presentation it's got a lot of nuance to it. Amazing game.

19. Sonic the Hedgehog
27.06.2023 - 2.7 Hours - Steam Deck - 9/10

Even though I grew up with both Sonic and Mario, I don't think I ever beat either of them due to the lives system and going straight back to the start of the game after losing them all, which ultimately always happened to me with Sonic and it's hazard filled mazes. Even so I've always loved it, and wanted to get further but never could.

Even with Sonic Plus the game is still hard as nails if you haven't replayed the levels to death. Lots of alternative paths to learn and secrets. I think most of my runs died in Labyrinth zone as a kid but I'm sure I got as far as Star Light zone before. I think I played most of this on the Game Gear tbh.

Finally getting to see the end, even if I didn't collect all the Chaos Emeralds (I got one and spent 10 coins trying to get a 2nd lol) was something off my bucket list and still, despite being a Nintendo kid growing up, I much prefered 2D Sonic than 2D Mario and was super jealous of anyone with Sonic until I got my own Megadrive. Fantastic game and will be going back to the Game Gear version at slme point to relive old memories.

20. The Bards Tale Remastered and Resnarkled
05.07.2023 - 15 Hours - Steam Deck - 6/10

I've never played The Bards Tale and I've always wanted to get into them as a fan of CRPG's so I own most of them currently. My brother suggested we play through this one together as he had wanted to dip his toes in the series too but didn't nessecarily want to play one of the older ones.

I had no idea before starting it that it was based on the Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance engine, a game which really disappointed me at the time due to it's pedigree being replaced with a failry shallow dungeon crawling ARPG with little story. In that regard I actually kinda liked The Bards Tale! It actually had a proper story, mostly tongue in cheek but it's filled with pretty good performances from NPC's that I did not expect and actual funny dialogue in the script with on point delivery (amongst it's outright cheese and sexism that would make 12 year olds chortle 20 years ago). Mostly from the NPC's rather than the Bard as I feel he was a bit miscast, he kinda lacks all charisma found in the many of NPC's.

The game starts of pretty promising. You're in a little town with a bunch of quests and people to talk to and it seems like this is an RPG ass RPG. Discovering songs it's a good use of the bardic abilities although I wish there was a bit more than just summons as the game leans way too much on melee combat focus. I also found throughout the game I never felt like my stats were in the right place. I'd do low damage, have low health, summons were too squishy and this is with me pretty much ignoring the dex, charisma and a putting a little into luck. At the ned I think strength and rhythm got maxed out and I still felt like me and my summons were too weak. It doesn't help that after this first area, and encountering a wordl map ala classic Final Fantasy the game very quickly takes this all away (comes back at the end of the game), forcing you into long linear dungeons with respawning enemies with no way back to get better gear or such. Many of the tunes also seem like they are hidden or off the beaten track in these levels and I think I missed 2 entirely and some I only encountered when I got their upgraded varients. A way to buy them later might have been appreciated. Once the game ends up in this linear path it becomes a pretty big slog. I got through it by abusing the mace spinning skill that was unblockable, dabbled with a few other weapons but the enemy block mechanic was just way too obnoxious, and blocking an attack wouldn't nessecarily give you an opening either which would be cumbersome against 1 enemy but often you are against 3 or 4 and it seems like there's no invincibility frames when hit so if all 3 hit you at once or god fucking forbid knock you down your health vanishes quickly.

As I said however, I really enjoyed the patter and the meta elements where it flips tropes on it's head. Stuff like 20 odd chosen ones bumbling around getting themselves killed, exasperation at getting sent for macguffin after macguffin, big bads having a chat at the dungeon entrance and then running off ot wait for you at the top of a tower and I really enjoyed stuff like the Bohd's and the guy who just wants you to say sorry for bumping into everyone in town. For a game called Bards Tale though it has some god awful songs that play repeatedly (Bad Luck Chosen One song?). One of my favourite parts were talking to the shopkeepers regarding their wares. These were some really well done script, acting and direction for these. Pretty solid little games, few points knocked off for how repetitive the combat gets although I kinda enjoyed playing Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance but with a story (that games saving grace is multiplayer). The dungeon is fucking dogshit also. Like 15 floors of literal combat where every floor is just a room full of enemies you fought at different points in the game, gradually getting becoming later and later enemies but it's such a fucking slog and a horrible way to end it.

21. Doom 3
17.07.2023 - 25 Hours - Switch - 7/10

Another one I've been wanting to finish for some time. I played on PC back in the day but the horror focus was a bit too much for me then and I mever really got out of the first few levels, despite really liking the visuals and sci-fi background.

I have a better appreciation for horror games now and decided to revist it and actually really enjoyed it...at first. The maze like levels and world I still really enjoyed exploring, but man oh man does this game like to drop ambushes on you. Obnoxiously so. I read a few complaints about it and was like ah man I can handle a few jump scares or whatever but no there is a dizzying amount of times you walk into a room, and enemy spawns in front of you and one behind. Like soo often it's one of the biggest reason the score got dropped. Couple that with very claustrophobic levels they don't really seem designed to be cornered by enemies trying to dance around them.

I also fucked up by picking hard, because well I like a challenge. It's not fun here. Lack of room to move means you are getting hit somehow most times. Pretty sure a good chunk of my playtime is reloading saves. You also can't chanfe the difficulty after you start so I was stuck with it the whole game and deeply regretted it.

Going to continue with Ressurection of Evil but that shit is getting put on the easiest difficulty.

22. Final Fantasy XVI
23.07.2023 - 86 Hours - PS5 - 9/10

Loved it. Beat Final Fantasy since FFX for me. Lots of heart, excellently presented, fantastic perfromances, interesting world filled with likable characters and adverseries and a mystery to boot.

Even though I lament Square minda diluting what was classic Final Fantasy over the years for more action based games, I appreciate that this was unashamedly an action game without any pretense. My main complaints are I wish there was something more we could do with our companions, even if it was getting them to cast buffs or anything. Also the gear pacing is...so bad haha. You get thrown tons of gear so quickly at the start, then there's a massive lull, then it happens again and you start getting gear thats only worthwhile for 20mins before the next thing comes along.

Additionally I wish there was just another added layer for the Eikons to make them unique. Something as simple as equip Phoenix, higher attack. Garuda, higher air attack damage. Ramuh higher stagger damage. Shiva more damage with magic. Titan higher defense. Bahamut maybe more damage with range spells, make em faster or something. Odin more damage or will damage with dodge and parry.

Just anything to make them more unique. Not even massive buffs talking like 3% more damage or whatever. I get why they didn't do elemental weaknesses because they didn't want you to think you had to use certain Eikons in certain situations but it would have been nice if there was a bit more utility with them.

23. The Blackwell Legacy
30.07.2023 - 4 Hours - Steam Deck - 8/10

After putting my time into a couple of large RPGs and open world games I decided to dive into slme shorter titles in my library. One that popped up was The Blackwell Legacy and even though I have bought a ton of point n click adventure games and love the genre, I've not actually played too many after the 00's. Decided it may be time to change that.

First title in a series that I own almost all of (the final game released last year I think) and while it is very short, in that time it creates an intriguing backstory and characters that makes me want to dive into more. The game almost feels like a prologue or introduction quest to the series and it's a great one at that, I didn't think the puzzles were too widley obscure or too easy either. A nice balance (although I don't get the whole "Adrian is typically a girls name" angle but maybe a region thing because way more boys are named Adrian here and a girl would be unusual unless called Adriana). The game also has great art and some pretty bopping music, although it can be a bit loud sometimes when trying to hear some dialogue.

I would have rated it lower as simply a solid entry except for the family backstory with Joey which had me proper intruqued and abusing him with questions to get more dialogue and I'm really looking forward to exploring more.

24. Call of Juarez Gunslinger
30.07.2023 - 6 Hours - Steam Deck - 8/10

Another short one that's been in my library for a long time. I was a big fan of the first 2 Call of Juarez's, including being an apologist for Bound in Blood's multiplayer having spent a ton of time with it on the Xbox 360. Then Cartel came along however and...my interest in the series waned so much.

I had heard that this was a good game, albiet short, and have always meant to jump in. The concept of a game that's a tale tale from a weary gunslinger, what is true and what's not, is leaned on really well. It has hints of Stanley Parable at times, toying with it's participants and the gameplay itself is setpiece to setpiece never letting up. It almost feels like a light gun game in some respects, very arcadey, and it does even have an arcade mode.

I think it does a great job spinning it's tale, even though it feels like you suss it out a few missions before the finale which is a bit of a shame. Some details are too on the nose and maybe would have been better if they had been left more vague until closer to the end. The gunplay too is snappy, fast and satisying and similar to something like Wolfenstien New Order where it shooting, weapons and movement feel pretty tight, even though the levels don't always feel like they allow for using much movement. Lots of tight spaces and hidden walls but often alternate paths or ways to tackle the level.

Duel system is always fun too although I always felt like the dodge was OP and never could actually outdraw anyone. Not sure if that is by design or not.

All in, top budget game, easily completed in a sitting or two, great performances (even a moment where our tale tale gunslinger breaks into a sorrowful song) and well worth the time. If the Call of Juarez series had continued like this, tales of the old west, I would have been happy. Additionally it actually seems quite well researched. Lots of info regarding the times and the real characters met during the game in the form of secrets to find, was really cool to see. I kinda wish it had a different artstyle. It felt a bit too...Borderlandsesque for me.

25. Inscryption
20.08.2023 - 20 Hours - PS5 - 10/10

I guess it's hard to talk about this game without getting into spoiler territory but it was just amazing. The less said the better other than it does a great job playing with the player, creating intrigue and getting you enamored with it's card systems even though I'm not really a card guy. The only thing I thought was a bit off was maybe the comouter not following the same rules as the player at all, but I don't think it could be entirely balanced if it did.

26. Horizon Forbidden West
03.09.2023 - 110 Hours - PS5 - 9/10

Been playing this on off for some time, I have two sorta main complaints. One is it's sheer size, I was level 40 something before even getting 20% through the story, the map is huge and full of pointa of interest and legitimate interesting characters and quests that flesh out the world but after awhile for me it became really overbearing and I repeatedly burned myself out. I think part of this is due to the combat not really evolving a great deal, simply given more varied equipment but mostly you are still dodging and shooting. I do wish the next game actually tweaks the combat because the machines got way more furious attacks but I didn't feel like there was satisfying ways to deal with these massive attacks, some enemies if you disabled most of their weapons would just repeat the same infurating sweeping move or charge which made it frustrating to deal with. I kinda wish there was more option for melee combat against machines but it did not really seem viable, some massive later machines become increasingly frustrating to dodge too and I had shades of FFXV potion spam to survive.

Other than that though the game was amazing to explore and some of the best realized NPC talking heads I've ever seen. People look and act realistic along with natural scripts. I did however not really buy the Tenakth portrayal, you get this impression they are more civilised than the Carja propaganda, and at first I thought that was a theme, but then Tenakth themselves tell you they were a brutal society and that's only recently changed and some still are but I just didn't get that from the clans. They all seemed really pleasant, soft spoken, kinda just appeared soft in general but I was supposed to think they were hardened warriors. I don't think many interactions really sold me on this at all.

I still loved the mystery of the game, like a proper classic B movie sci-fi adventure that you actually got to live in, and I did enjoy trying out many of the new weapons but not the grinding for gear and new equipment. I am a bit worried the next one will be even bigger, I'm not sure I have it in my anymore. Plus everything looks absolutely gorgeous and I think Aloy is a fantastic character.

I hope any future games fix the internal monologue though. Mlre than a few times Aloy did spoil the answer to the puzzle almost immediately, which just defeated the purpose and made it feel focus tested. I really hope this trend stops or goes back to Uncharted still hint buttons.

27. Horizon Forbidden West - Burning Shores
11.09.2023 - 10 Hours - PS5 - 9/10

I was already pretty burnt out, so I only really focused on the main quest here, and despite feeling some regret looking over the map and seeing some gorgeous vistas to explore, I think I enjoyed this better by keeping it story focused. It has great new character inclusions and I already liked the Quen concept more than the Tenakth so seeing more of them was welcome.

Plus now that flying was unlocked it made it much more pleasurable experience to explore the world (mainly going from quest to quest) and I enjoyed the new antagonist and the culmination in a much more bombastic finale boss than the vanilla campaign.

I hope someday I get the energy to return and explore more of the world. I really enjoyed my time with it and again, character interactions being such a huge highlight it really is mindblowing how well it is presented for me.

28. Pokemon Shield
16.09.2023 - 86 Hours - NSW - 5/10

Not much to say about this one other than I've had it since launch and I kinda loathe putting it on. I don't enjoy many of the new pokemon except a few like Grimsnarl and Toxicity but a lot of designs piss me off especially the evolved starters. I guess the British inspiration sours me too because it has so much dumb stereotypical stuff like top hat wheezing and punk football louts, gym fights looking like a dumb ass football pitch, it doesn't feel inspired it just feels really hammy and base.

I'm also not a fan of the wild area. What a barren useless place. Lack of dungeons and interesting towns too everywhere is just dull and lifeless. Story and rivalry still shit but that's nothing new been that waybfor decades. I can excuse that stuff but the same old slow ass systems with little change frustrates me. With XP share I had pokemon in my team for literal 10s of hours without using them before realising. It make it feel kinda hollow. Also the designs again I just can't get behind some of these desgins, the fucking apple pie dragon Inspent so long evolving wtf why do you exist.

I've started Arceus and already liking it a lot. I will try Scarlet at some point im sure but as I'm a filthy addict and come this far I guess I should give Isle of Tundra and Armor a go.

29. Until Dawn
06.10.2023 - 8 Hours - PS5 - 10/10

Utterly adored this game. I think it captured playing a slasher flick beatuifully, plus the typical mystery of a horror movie goes really well with the collectible, enviroment exploration, element for me where you can uncover more of the story the more bits and pieces you find. I also laughed out loud quite a few times when I made a decision and knew immediately I had fucked up so badly. Fantastic performances all round, and cast in general. The forced camera angles and horror almost give me an old school Resident Evil vibe. Looking forward to burning through some more of the Supermassive games because every one of them I have played I have loved.

30. Carrion
07.10.2023 - 7 Hours - Steam Deck - 8/10

It's hard to say this game is mindblowing, but it is such a unique and fresh twist on a metroidvania that it almost feels like it is. Travelling around as a thing like murderous blob is such a treat, the puzzles are enough to scratch your head but not frustratingly taxing, and the game looks great, from the pixel art to the actual designs of the world and mechs.

I dropped it a little bit because 1. it's probably too short. 2. There's something of a story but it's barely presented. 3. There's no map or anything so getting lost can be veery easy if you decided to backtrack to get some abilities. It didn't really happen to me until the very end where I started to explore and very much lost my way for like an hour. Even so, very unique game, tight visuals and audio and really addictive gameplay.

31. Alan Wakes American Nightmare
08.10.2023 - 4 Hours - Steam Deck - 5/10

I really enjoyed Alan Wake, but this game sucks. Repeating 3 boring ass levels with weak dialogue and a bunch of monologues pratting on about nonsense....really didn't have the charm of the original game at all. Felt artificially padded out and just uneeded. Almost felt like a fan game.
Also not if all the woman are supposed to be suggesting Wake is horny as hell? Mechnaic in tank top with pokies, hot scientist wearing low cut dress under labcoat (apparently she rushed over from a party), and some hipster chick who is possessed by darkness everytime you enter her level and she is dirty talking you the entire time and moaning. It's pretty creepy and cringe.

32. Call of Duty Vanguard
13/10/2023 - 6 Hours - PC - 6/10

Time for yearly reminder to play the last Call of Duty campaign I haven't beat before uninstalling. That said, I know this game got a lot of stick but I really enjoyed the multiplayer, I've always liked the WW2 games, especially online. I did find it a bit akward there is no allies vs axis factions in matches, which just feels really odd to me. Allies just killing allies I guess. I get the idea behind it, I saw somewhere that they felt it was a bit off and kinda hero worship to but Nazi characters but I'm kinda like, just don't do operators :D it'll never happen but I liked it much better when your guy was just a faceless mook, y'know like the reality of war where everyone isn't this suave cool hero, players are just cogs in the machine making numbers go up and down.

Call of Duty campaigns...I don't really ever remember them too much! But I do have fond memories of enjoying the spectacle. I liked Cold Wars Campaign for instance and have been meaning to go back and play some of the old ones. This one is...shit. It starts off kinda strong although the sub level is boring Arthurs firs mission starts off strong with slinking around in the woods with lights and flares going off, reminiscent of something like 1917, but drops it quickly. Fair enough, that's alright, but then the rest of the characters and missions just don't really hold up. I really didn't like anybody else and just felt like they were very heavy tropes that bored me. Also the death screens having their quotes as if they are some deep and wise words irked me quite a bit. Some of it was asnine stuff like "oh don't get on Polina's her bad side she's a baddass!" - Wade um Boggs or whatever.

I've heard the lines during the game, what made them think this stuff was so brilliant they should be featured quotes for the player to live their lives by?

All in all, really fucking weak. The AI was fucking atrocious too, at points I thought I was playing fucking Call of Duty 2 where enemies and friendlies would be standing next to each other shooting different people, or they would stand in the open still doing nothing or run right past me. All the stealth sections seemed like artificially trying to extend the game length and unfun. Spot distance for enemies is so damn stupidly small but it's cool because the game wants you to stealth but doesn't give the level design really fit for the purpose except the good ol guard staring at a wall for 10 seconds ever 30 seconds for you to get your jollies. It only gets a 6 because I enjoyed the multiplayer but the campaign is like a fucking 2 or something it's boring.

33. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lion
26.10.2023 - 100+ Hours - PSVita - 8/10

Another one that's been a long time coming, far far too long. Currently watching the end of the credits, listening to the sweet music, contemplating the game and what I actually remember of it after going back to for short bursts over the years. I remember when I stopped outright, the battle where you fight as just Ramza against your brother. I ended up cheesing it and making Ramza overlevelled then I spent hours upon hours grinding for everyone else and just really having a shit time at that point. My characters felt so weak, every story battle afterwards was so damn difficult, so many fights that started with a bunch of enemies on the high ground, 30minutes to an hour in a fight that gets fucked over from one or two bits or RNG. It got incredibly frustrating and I struggled to pull myself to continue.

That was probably about 4 years ago...but before that I believe I started my save way before that. It was one of the first games I got on my Vita that I've owned since launch...I was mega excited, but the slow burn of combat is such a struggle. The last few nights I have actually woken up to the Via dead because I've fallen asleep playing it. I'm not a fan of Stategy turn based combat, in fact I protest against it loudly for western CRPG's as I feel games end up playing way to damn similar and slow. With that out of the way however, the story, writing and characters is probably the best seen in a Final Fantasy for a long time, and it's really suprising me this version never made the jump to consoles. Hopefully with the leaks out there it will get a new release.

In the end I think I started having more fun once I got some more OP characters. Cid, Deliah, Construct 88 and Balthier pretty much and also a few others. I was tempted to just make a beeline for the ending without going for Cloud but I had always heard about his inclusion and though fuck it and went through the steps. Little did I know that was a good few hours worth of tough battles! In the end, it was kinda pointless lol. I got his sword but he starts at lvl1 and I had no interest in grinding anymore. His scenes are not even that interesting but despite my opinion of FFXII being pretty low Balthier's cutscene was excellent. I can see why it is well respected and I think I would have rated it higher if the combat was a faster and I dunno, my guys just didng't feel so godamn useless half the time. I actually have Tactics Ogre for the PS4 here too and I think it's time to get it installed, only been sitting in it's shrink wrap for 2 years...

Little hard to upload photos as annoyingly the Vita has this game blocked from photos (Don't think all PSP games do this) but oh well.

34. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
29.10.2023 - 14 Hours - PSVita - 8/10

Really cool Zelda clone from back in the day, with arguably much more in depth world and backstory. Nosgoth seems like such a rich world that we only scratch the surface of in the game, but that surface is enough to make you feel like someone really went Tolkien here and tried to make a detailed world, probably with a 80s heavy metal album cover as inspiration. It's still refreshing even today, to get a glimpse of a pretty gloomy and honestly, sucks ass world.

Along with this rich backdrop it is filled with awesome voice acting from our lead, every single item is elequently detailed via voice, then their differennt effects...we have people exploding, ripped to shreds, souls ripped out of them, flayed, ignited. It's all just really, metal. In a good way. I would imagine this was probably something of like an "adult" Zelda back in the day but it's not just that it's actually a really cool Zelda. Tons of secrets to find and puzzles to work out, I had to look at a guide a few times (fucking Strength fountain), and on occasion fairly difficult bosses.
Thankfully the games janky hitboxes can be used and abused because otherwise this game would be flippin hard as nails. Standing just outside of an enemies reach and stunning them, or at an angle and they don't know how to handle it, there's certainly seems like the combat gameplay is flimsy. Having to pause to flip between equipment constantly is really painful too, as the pause screen took time to load, but maybe that's just the PSVita emulator.
Sometimes you are having to constantly flip to different magic and armour and weapons and pausing repeatedly during a fight. If only there was some way to change this live it would be great, but yea the very specific applications for everything does mean even against one enemy you have to swap to say, a different weapon that will let you use magic, then maybe swap your armour so it doesn't sap all your magic, then maybe swap back in a spell to restore your magic, then maybe the antidote if you accidentally sucked it's blood and it's poison blood then back into armour to take off the armour that auto sucks blood, all with like a good few seconds loading when actually opening the menu then closing.

The equipment itself though, having every piece of gear have it's own cool applications is awesome. Armour that repels undead but it's a bit weaker in general, mace that does little damage but stuns to get some sucking in there, fire sword that does great damage but doesn't leave anything to suck. It''s excellent and I loved finding and using new gear and even finding out they had in world applications. Axe cuts down trees, mace can bash little pillars etc. Really leaning on that Zelda influence of getting more gear and abilities allows for more overworld exploration.

All in all loved this game. The world has hooked me and I'm going to see if I can get the sequel running in Steam Deck tonight. The Lawnmower man ier fantasy CGI FMV's are a lost art that I adore. The artstyle and evil grimdark nature of everything here still feels fresh today because it doesn't feel cringe or trying too hard. It's an excellent dark fantasy world, reminding me of something like The Black Company and it's pretty sweet. I also feel like I must have spent way longer on it that my playtime suggests.

Also, minor shame but the UI on the right takes up so damn much screen estate damnit.

35. Pony Island
30.10.2023 - 3.5 Hours - Steam Deck - 9/10

Affer playing the fantastic Inscryption I decided to try his earlier game Pony Island which has lota of the same themes and meta tricks and yup this is a great game. Again thick with creativity, style and mystery, another gem.

36. Star Wars Bounty Hunter
02.11.2023 - 20 Hours - PS2 (on PS5) - 4/10

Man...this was one of those games as a kid I was hype for, bought it on release and just never finished it. Always wanted to and going back to it now I can see why I didn't finish it.
The concept itself should be super exciting, travelling to different Star Wars locales, completeing the levels and hunting bounties at the same time...buuuutt they made bounty hunting as unfun as possible. I'm not really sure if there is a better way to do it but to actually mark and collect a bounty first you need to equip your visor, which locks you into a 1st person view without movement, you need to manually aim at your potentially bounty and it taks a second but it will tell you if they are a bounty or not, then you have to mark them with square and do your thing.

Problem is you are trying to do this in levels that are throwing enemy fodder at you constantly, with little indication what is a bounty and what isn't. Bounties are often mixed in with regular grunts but then you get sequences where there are seemingly neverending waves of enemies where it is pointless, who also like to spawn behind you which is always fun. In the first few levels I was running around restraining everyone so I could scan people in peace but by the 2nd chapter I just gave up collecting bounties all together. Trying to pick out people with the visor while they are all jumping around, in additional to more deadly enemy varietys appearing in later levels, you start to have snipers, rocker launchers, grenade dudes, heavy rifle holders and you only get 5 lives for a whole level and some of them are quite long and tend to end with a boss. The biggest defensive move you got is just never stop moving and if you do, a sniper shot takes you down to half health or some tiger fuck pounces on you and it's a 1hko. Because of thisI gave up trying to get bounties which is a shame because it's one of the few things that gives this game life, reading the little bounty sheets for why they are up for reward. Otherwise the game is pretty flat, whoever voices Zam goddamn it is so lifelessly delivered.

Also trough in some pretty bad controls and camera that often get you killed more than the enemies. 5 life limit and having to jet pack around massive canyons or something ledges that look grabbable but aren't, the jetpack should have given you a bit of freedom but instead it still feels like you are heavily railroaded and the jetpack is just another hazard. There are a few moments when you are blasting and jumping and you feeling godlike but those are few and far between and feels more like your playing a Devil May Cry rip off than Star Wars. Then in one small move it's game over, it might be the PS4 version but there is some amount of input lag, where say you find yourself running off ledges alot instead of jumping off them and losing one of your precious lives. The game isn't long but my playtime pretty much stems from the trial and error nature of the levels and having to replay them from scratch due to mess ups. Sometimes unfair mess ups like walking into a room and it's full of snipers who take you out in seconds.

Big sad disappointment.

37. Inside
04.11.2023 - 3 Hours - Steam Deck - 10/10

Nothing much to say other than visually striking, gripping and while I didn't understand shit, thought provoking too.

38. Call of Duty MWII
07.11.2023 - 6.5 Hours - Steam - 5/10

Anoyther CoD campaign, mostly to clear it and get it the fuck off my drive so I can update Baldurs Gate 3. I just..I like the multiplayer but the story is garbage. It feels like Tom Clancy writing bad young adult fiction. So many lines that are either eye wateringy heroic, or ow the edge what a badass. I really can't take this shit seriously. This isn't uncommon for CoD but at the same time, the levels are fucking duds. I just found them railroaded and not really a spectacle. The most interesting ones are the actual shadow op type ones like the oil rig or the prison but outside of that most were boring. Gaz driving section is awful stuff, Soap Alien Isolation crafting is fucking trash and some stupid idiot thought it was sweet enough to make it crucial to the final sequence in the game. Ghost is fucking cringe, Price and Alejandro are just cartoons. So glad to have at least the campaign uninstalled from my machine. Felt that Black Ops and Vanguard were better stories.

Also what the hell is with these games and slipping their own character quotes with renowned quotes? One moment you have Ghandi then the next you have fucking General Shepherd "Sometimes good guys do bad things." Like what the fuck kinda deep philisophical statement on war is that. Just get rid of the damn quotes if you're going to fill it with your own shite dialogue.

39. Turok Rage Wars
09.11.2023 - 20Hours-ish - N64(On Steam Deck) - 10/10

So this is a bit of an odd one, and I'm not sure how it happened, but I planned to unlock more characters before deeming this complete but here goes.

I've always absolutely adored this game, even got to go through some 4 player trials as a kid and even though it was great I kept encountering a frustrating bug that would created a good excuse to play the fame over and over repeatedly. Basically my save would wipe. I'd unlock the majority of the characters then I'd boot it up ine day and it'd say there's no profile and I'd have to create a character.

I tried different memory packs and no bueno. Would still happen, and this would be after hours of gameplay. I also had one of the WWF games that did the same, No Mercy, and it was acknowledged as a legitimate issue and replacement carts were available so ok it's something that can happen. I then read somewhere that Rage Wars was indeed bugged and had replacements and I thought ok that explains it.

Now I am older, and wiser, I did a bit of googling and found the issue actually only affects USA carts, and I'm in Europe, not only that but the bug doesn't actually wipe saved data but it's a bugged trial preventing progress. So here I am happilly playing on my Deck for like a year, I just unlocked Oblivion Spawn and did the first two maps with Fireborn, there's only 5 empty spaces on the character select (4 are reserved for bosses in multiplayer I'm sure) and tonight I go to boot it up and the fucking thing says there's no profile. I check the mem card file and it's empy and this is exactly the shit that would happen to me when I was younger, so what the fuck is going on how come I can't beat this...

I'm going to try again on my PC, backing up the controller pak saves as I go but this is just fucking surreal now man. I'm searching reddit to see if there is any mention of this happening and it's just fucking me. I'm now wondering if it's my character name that hits a programming bug of some kind as I'm using the same name I did back then. I can't think of anything else it could be.

But with that said, I'm going to mark it as complete as I've beat the thing like 15 times over with different characters in the last year. I love this game, wish it would come to Steam with online play that would be amazing. I miss this kinda of arena shooter, I love the characters and designs, the guns, the maps are fairly basic but ad the chracter trials get harder you start to get some cool and deeper levels. Capture the flag however will never not be a joke for these maps however lol.

40. Resident Evil 2 Remake
10.11.2023 - 24 Hours - PS5 - 9/10

I was a bit of a late bloomer with the Resident Evil series. I watched my older cousin play 1 and 2 and adored it, played it some with my friend but I didn't get a playstation until way into it's life so never really got to experience the series proper. Played a bit of 3 on PC but I think it was just a demo I had.

Along comes the Gamecube and while 4 is great, I was enamoured with Resident Evil 1 remake. I still think of it as the gold standard of remakes, and it seems not popular at the moment but I much prefer faithful remakes that might add something here or there, but give the game a huge face-lift.

Especially those PS1 and N64 games, early 3D stuff that really benfits from getting a graphical makeover. Afterwards I continued with the series playing all the mainline games but never got round to going back to the originals.

Then comes the Vita, and my favourite ass feature is being able to play PS1 and some PS2 games on it. Chock full of Final Fantasy (like every main game up to X-2), Metal Gear Solid and of course, Resident Evil. Finally played through 1 and 2 and man 2 is just a perfect 10/10. It nails it's world perfectly.

Resident Evil 2 is almost there. The over the shoulder stuff makes it feel like so many other games that I don't really click with it, at some points it wants to be an action game without action mechanics and I'm not amazed by it. It's also got a quite awful Ada section using an electronic scanner that is just boring and really odd hand holding. Some loading screens will flat out tell you how to beat a puzzle or boss after one failure and at lab in the 2nd run as Claire the game randomly decided to give me the prompts on how to combine as if I hadn't been doing it the last 5 hours.

As much as I sound negative though the heart of Resident Evil 2 is there, and it looks great, and it's spooky as shit and it's still a great game, if a slight notch below the original for me.

41. Hammerwatch
15.11.2023 - 13 Hours - Steam - 9/10

This one I feel like I might be cheating, as we didn't gather enough planks to escape, but me and my group of friends finally beat the last boss. Excellent and highly addictive game. Reminds me of the same pleasure centre hits as Vampire Survivors. Excellent pixel art and fun classes and abilities and a fantastic laugh with friends especially when sharing lives/health.

42. Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil
20.11.2023 - 4 Hours - Switch - 5/10

Pretty unremarkable tbh, other than having a really ugly main character and at least the double barrel shotgun felt like it had the proper stopping power the Doom 3 shotgun should have had. Other than that though the rest of the weapons are not anything to write home about. At least enemies stop spawning behind you in the expansion holy hell that was a relief.

Not really sure what it coulda done for me to rate it higher. Maybe if they had more diverse enviroments but ultimately if you showed me footage and told me it was the vanila campaign I couldn't tell, it doesn't do really much of anything to differentiate itself other than a couple of new weapons, including suprising difficult to use gravity gun thing and another artifact thing I barely used.

Also the Switch suffered quite a bit more severe slow down in this fame than the campaign, and I don't know why because there is not much different happening here.

43. Bayonetta
25.11.2023 - 17 Hours - Switch - 7/10

I tried this back in the day on the Xbox 360 and bounced off it quite quickly. Always meant to go back and with the rave reception of the series I've been more and mkre tempted to play it.

I think I've been playing this for about a year and still not fully "in" to it yet. Maybe that will change with Bayonetta 2, but the first game I thought was pretty so so. Bosses are great but I wasn't a fan of the constant mooks that are boring to fight and generally just swarm in numbers. I've played Devil May Cry 1 and 2 and enjoyed both of them (yes even 2) and I don't think you quite get as many monsters on you at one time. I think it made things pretty chaotic which in turn didn't make me explore with combos and weapons too much as there never seemed like there was a free moment to do so.

There were some weapons you picked up that were so slow if you tried to use them outside of witch time you'd get him and I ended up not really understanding the mechanics. Sometimes I got witch time sometimes I didn't, I never really got used to what combos had magic and ultimately was having a hard time until I just started using the same 2 or so combos which also.made things kinda get stale. I tried to use the whip and couldn't really find anything interesting with it, the claws were a little better but most of the time I didn't see any reason not to use the sword.

The boss spectacles were great but getting closer to the end the story was all just gibberish which is a shame because the notes and text on the creatures and angels feel like there was a really cool world depicted, but then in game what we get is a bunch of nonsense. I'm also not keen on the comic strip/cinema cell like cutscenes.

Also...I know people argue this game is an example of female empowerment/sexuality but there is quite a few times it feels obvious its made by some horny guy. There's strong and sexual but then there's moments where angels are doing Bayonetta's pose and pretty much rubbing their clit and I have to ask just fucking why. That along with hair powers thing stripping her down feels pretty much like Quiet MGSV levels of cringe and I'm suprised it has so many defenders.

All in all, liked the spectacle, *most* bosses, Batonetta herself, the music, didn't like the repetitive encounters against multiple enemies, I guess the combo system feeling hard to pull off in combat, everything kinda relying on dodge so much and the story. Solid game, but not feeling the reverence at the moment.

44. Resident Evil Village - Shadows of Rose
25.11.2023 - 3 Hours - PS5 - 6/10

I really enjoyed Resident Evil Village, in some areas I enjoyed it more than 7 and I was looking forward to Shadows of Rose, wondering how the landscape of Resident Evil would be what 16 years in the future or whatever.

The game itself though...feels like just a really contrived way to just have Rose retread over enviroments from the main campaign. That said, they do tweak them in unique and interesting ways, but it's so short and linear that there's not really much to do but just run from a to b to c putting the pieces together. The whole MacGuffin of a crystal that will cure Rose from her powers makes sense when it becomes apparent it's Miranda's bait to Rose, but then it actually works 5 minutes later suggesting it is a real crystal? I didn't even get the impression jumping into the megamycyte was to retrieve the actual crystal but to get the research/knowledge of it but that was all driven by Miranda anyway so the emotional impact of embracing her powers at the end and throwing away her chance at a normal life doesn't even make any sense.

Really short campaign, mostly a reworked retread of stuff in the main game, and nonsense story, but it's a shame as it has unique twists to the gameplay and Rose feels like she could be an actuall cool character, especially compared to the Resi kids of Resi 6 which was ugh. Playing 3rd person in main campaign is cool though!

45. Kamui
26.11.2023 - 1 Hour - Steam Deck - 9/10

I have the trilogy for this, for a one point when I went through a bullet hell stage, Tales of Alltynex, and I have hesitated playing them because I can never remember which games goes where.

I had Kamui installed on my Steam Deck and decided to jump in. Just like most renowned bullet hells it looks gorgeous, lots of effects and great designs, along with a melancholic lore backdrop and simple but interesting mechanics where you either shoot ya nornal gun, or have a lightning attack that can either do a high damage beam attack that also clears projectiles or a homing attack that hits units out reach like ground units.

These are are a recharging meter so you have to gauge whether you want to do the high direct damage, maybe hold onto the beam for a moment busy with projectiles, or take out some ground units to lessen the chaos. Simple but effective.

It has unlimited continues by default, if it didn't there's no way in hell I'd make it to the end, but the stages, and the bosses, are top notch. Would have kept playing it but I want to try the other games in the series and I think the next one to jump on is Relfex.

46. Thief Gold
03.12.2023 - 30 Hours - Steam - 10/10

Another game/series I've promised to myself repeteadly to get into. I own all the series, owned the original as a tyke and think I had issues installing but, but like most highly acclaimed PC games of the 90s/00s that I missed on release, I have never been dissapointed jumping into them later. I can see why this is loved.
Even though the immersive sim genre has grown into it's own thing, I don't think modern day examples really nail this type of gameplay, or at least none are coming to mind. The encouragement to creep and sneak a little tighly woven sandbox, is something I would have wished MGSV had turned into, multiple different little Ground Zero's, full of alternative means to tackling the objective.

I really loved this game, and now struggling to think should I go through it on a harder difficulty right away, jump into the sequel or even start the fan made content that just released adding an extra 10 levels. I'm not sure why more games don't do it (ok shit I know why they don't do it) but I love the idea of levels having more depth/objectives by increasing the difficulty. It's one of the most satisfying replayability incentives I can think of. On top of that it has some other really cool hooks going for it. An intriguing steam punk/fantasy world with it's own lore with plenty of insight into characters we don't even meet. I really enjoyed the Opera House level for giving us a little insight into how regular ass society lives in this gloomy world.

Honestly if it wasn't for this 52 games thing I'd be diving back in, but time is short...

47. Super Mario Sunshine
06.12.2023 - 25 Hours - Switch - 10/10

Fuck everybody, this games amazing.

48. Cuphead
08.12.2023 - 11 Hours - Steam Deck - 10/10

Amazing game, perfect fit for Steam Deck too, looks gorgeous, plays great, challenging and a great premise with fantastic designs and music throughout. Just a really complete package throughout that nails what it's trying to do. I never got to try it but get's a further boost for having coop too.

49. The Outer Worlds - Murder on Eridanos
11.12.2023 - 10 Hours - PS5 - 7/10

I'm still playing the game at large so I'll restrict myself to talking about this specific expansion. I've somehow...played them out of order. Murder on Eridanos unlocked earlier than Peril on Gorgon for me but I realised half way through the thing the suggested levels are reversed, so now I'm pretty beefy level for the rest of the game.

Loved the location but not so sure on the story...it's setup as a whodunnit with some playful columbo esque dialogue but it's jot very smart in the end. I may have missed some clues because ultimately I just ruled out everybody and didn't get any evidence that pointed at the mystery proper, except that something shady was very obvious from the start with brain slugs but that never popped up in conversation despite the whole map been overrun with slug zombies clearly infected with the product.

It was a bit of a mental struggle to keep hoing with all these regular crime leads like thinking it's a crime of passion, when right from the get go you assume it's got something to do with the slugs and the more you discover the more it becomes apparent. Even so it's littered with interesting characters, truley quirky and enjoyable light hearted dialogue, lots of great weapons and a sandbox to explore. It's just a shame it wasn't actually wittier with how it handled it's mystery. You even get given a clue seeking device that just alerts you to clues so you don't feel like you are solving anything. It also continues the trend of having a what feels like a colour filter over everything. Bordering into critism of the full game here, I enjoy the game, but I do not like how it looks. It also kinda just has recycled enemies from the main game from raptidons, primals, mantisaurs etc masqurading as a wildlife reserve which is a bit ho hum. Still good though!

I was actually waiting for the true twist at the end to say you were part of a serial all along, like a live action serial done for amusement of the masses but guess not. I just thought all thebtwist and turns seemed so tropey that there may have been some larger meta slight of hand going on but oh well.

50. The Outer Worlds - Peril on Gorgon
15.12.2023 - 12 Hours - PS5 - 8/10

Even though I think I played them out of order, I'm glad I played this one last. Murder on Eridanos has more stuff I guess, it has colourful writing and was enjoyable but I feel Peril on Gorgon, even though it too is pretty tropey and predictable, feels much more like it is part of the Outer Worlds universe, but still madcap, light hearted and filled with corporate absurdism, whereas Eridanos I think is a bit sketchier with that balance.

I really enjoyed delving into more secrets, legitimate revalations about the colony that worked for me and showed how dystopian this world was. It has, again, great characters and writing and while sometimes it can be a bit offputting for your companions to always have their say in conversations, they worked really well here. I brought Pavratti and Vicar for moat of this and their interjections were all pretty excellent and further cemented them as my favourite characters.

Really good expansion, maybe could have had more stuff I guess, but I really enjoyed exploring the locale and having some questions leas back to the colony and a pretty cool space hijacking sequence that's also pretty funny.

51. Outer Worlds
15.12.2023 - 42 Hours - PS5 - 8/10

Finally done! Kinda a long time coming, I got this as a christmas present 2 years ago, got through Edgewater but then put it on the backburner then got the Spacers Choice version and had to start it from scratch.

When I heard it was announced I was super excited...then I actually saw the game and while some of it looks great, the different worlds all have cool looking stuff just going on and the general design of everything is great, Inhate the artstyle lol. It's like a cartoon sheen over everything, planets seem to have a blanket colour filter over them and it's slightly offputting. Even so I enjoyed exploring every little bit of the maps and feel like there's a bit of New Vegas and Mass Effect blended here. Skills and attributes do randomly put up in conversations and seeem like they can heavily change the outcomes of quests which I really like.

The story of an absurd corporate run colony works really well, although sometimes it leans into it a bit too absurd but in general toes that line very well. The story beats and reveals are all pretty cool too and actually have some unexpected tangents I didn't think about and make me interested in the sequel.

Companions too are largely great, I wasn't too keen on Felix, I thought his patter was naff and his quest really bloody short and shallow whereas everyone else had great quests but I'm wondering if with different choices maybe it would have been more involved. I just find his quips a bit, idiotic. And not in a comical way. Him trying to hit on Minnie in Gorgon though was pretty funny. I think though you really only get to see the characters shine when you bring them along. I was suprised at how many quips and interjections they had, on the occasion it was actually awkward when in the middle of dialogue your two companions kind queue their responses in the middle of something important. On the whole though these were great and the speaker usually has a line responding to them which helps a ton to make it seem less random. The only other character I barely used, but enjoyed and wish I could have used more, was SAM.

Didn't use SAM because of the damn flaw system. For how much it was advertised the flaw system seemed kinda shit. Perks didn't seem as important as actually boosting your skills and out of every tree there were standout perks to get so in general you didnt really need a permanent debuff to fighting insects or humans. I fucked up though and picked the damn automechanical one and you have a fucking companion who's an automechanical (and also like 80% of the game has some kinda robot around lol) so basically if I brouggt it along I was always debuffed. Really regretted that because it seemed really cool and had some unique interjection with other robots like Burbage 3000 on Eridanos.

Pretty great game, lots of weaponry and gear management, the weapons are really satisying to use especially the shotguns and miniguns. My only complaint is the weapons fast get outpaced with leveling up and gear is level matched it seems so finding unique gear at level 10 gets so quickly outclassed. You can level them up at a workbench but the price to do so starts off at barely anything and then doubles everytime. Imo it should be cheaper the further your level is from the weapon, and get more expensive the closer the weapon matches your level. Instead I had a unique assault rifle at 400dps and 15,000bits tonupgrade at lv 24 compared to some random lv30 1100dps assault rifle that I could upgrade for 80bits. Kinda odd system.

Well worth a play, glad I held off until all the DLC was out, Spacers Choice version kinda iffy...Input on cinematic mode a few times to take pictures but boy it feels rough and performance mode sweats sometimes too but at least save and load times are quick. Wish they had added a quick save options though. Looking at all the trophies has given me hints on how much I've missed and choices Incould have made. Potentially one for replaying in the future, for instance the last encounter I just talked my way through everything and it felt really satisying. Conversely...there was a sequence before bigging up The Labyrinth as being some kind of brutal gauntlet but it just ended up being a really familiar facility/bunker aesthetic with a pretty window. Not sure what that was about.

Also I'll miss the companion abilities they were so cool! Nyoka's yell as she lets rip on a minigun and Vicar Max's assortment of lines, MAY YOU FIND PEACE IN DEATH, all classic! Majority of my playthrough was Pavrati and Max and it was hard to coax myself to use Ellie and Nyoka even though they were great too because these guys were so cool (and I liked the extra hack, engineering and lockpick boosts).

52. Jurassic Park (Megadrive via Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection)
16.12.2023 - 3 Hours - Steam Deck - 8/10

I know people are kinda rough on this game critically, and I can honestly see why. I certainly wouldn't be giving it a high score if I couldn't use save states or rewind because this game is faaacking unfair. So many trial and error moments, and just janky gameplay choices that will one hit kill you for little explanation.

I don't think I ever beat this as a kid, I think I gtlot as far as the end with Grant and had no idea how to beat the raptors who were suddenly invulnerable, and of course if you failed then you had to do the entire damn level again. Then there's the river rapid level which is just so broken, anything and everything will kill ya boat with very little visual information on what your doing wrong. Sometimes you didn't ans just whatever pixel you landed on decides not to grab a ledge or you are in water or whatever.

That said though, I love running and gunning through these levels, getting in a fight witg a raptor is fucking scary and tough if you screw up. Throwing grenades at triceratops and 360 no scoping a pterodactyl out the air, and that iconic big boy T Rex just popping through the enviroment to say hello from time to time and waggle her head around. It's cool! I love the look of everything, Grant kicking in doors, compys sucking your face, the raptors weezing on the ground while you work out your next step. It's great.

Then there's the Raptor levels which are really quite unique and I can't think of any other platformer off the rop of my head that's lets you run around as a dinosaur. Raptor gets a bunch of new tools, excellent jump mobility, jumping claw attack, pounce and bite, ledge attack and also some kind of roar that I don't know if it does shit. Raptor levels are even more trial and error based because with your increased jump sometimes its just a fucking guess if you're supposed to jump or pounce a gap. You can also play this shit like Mario as every enemy is a goomba, Raptor can just bounce of those noggins for insta kills. I really enjoyed the tools and animation for the Raptor and would love to play a full fledged game like this.

At the end you face the evil Dr Grant, a godamn super soldier standing on the bones of your kid throwing fucking grenades and blapping away with the electrobeam like he's inputted the chest codes. Again the solution isn't obvious and there's no feedback you are doing the right thing until everything randomly starts exploding...even though all you did was kick the base of a skeleton for a minute.

53. Miles Morales
27.12.2023 - 22 Hours - PS5 - 9/10

Perfect little Christmas game!

I really enjoyed this, and I'm trying to think if I enjoyed it more than SM1 actually, mostly because it doesn't overstay it's welcome, the collectible stuff isn't as overbearing, and I really like Miles! It has a really personal story here, with great performances, that make it hard for me to decide who I like better.

With the shorter runtime though it also exacerbates something that annoyed me about SM1, where you feel powerful at the start but while you unlock skills and abilities, the enemies get more tools to deal with you and it feels you actually don't progress, but regress a bit while every encounter has some big dude or rocket launchers or sniper rifles. Some of the moves were frustrating when they didn't pull of like perfect dodging a gun shouls give you an instant kill but doesn't or perfect dodge not counting for some reason or you venom punch and you go for some mook instead of a brute. That said, traversal is still absolutely amazing. One of the few games where I resisted fast travel as much as possible because it's so fun and New York in winter is such a cool backdrop.

Fabtastic game, perfect length, and while I complain about it, when the combat works it feels really nice and fluid to be flying through those combos. Sometimes you do just get everything thrown at you though and struggle to do nothing but dodge lol.

chrominance · Jan 1, 2023

No specific goals this year beyond a vague "finish some long games." This means I'm letting myself off the hook for not finishing 52 games, or even the 26 I've targeted in previous years. I have a bunch of long JRPGs and whatnot that I'd like to clear from the backlog and I've always sacrificed those in favour of shorter games because of this challenge, so this year I'm changing focus. The process has already started; I finally began playing Persona 5 Royal late in 2022 after owning a PS4 copy for years and barely touching it.

PREVIOUS YEARS
2022: 52 games (full post, wrap-up)
2021: 52 games (full post, wrap-up)
2020: 52 games (full post, wrap-up)
2019: 27 games (full post, wrap-up)
2018: 9 games (full post)
2017: 52 games (full list, wrap-up)
2016: 56 games
2015: 59 games
2014: 63 games

COMPLETED GAMES
1. Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage (Android, 2021) - 18:24 - January 20

Over six months into my time with Colorful Stage, and I think I'm finally starting to let go of the addiction a little bit. The amazing feeling of constantly improving my skills from the first few months has now faded as I run into the wall that is level 26 difficulty songs, and while I'm still getting better, it's much much slower than before. Without that constant feeling of improvement, it's easier to feel the grind, and thus more tempting to finally hop off the treadmill. The amount of time Colorful Stage asks of you to keep up with weekly events certainly doesn't help either. I'm not sure how much longer I'll play past these first two events of the year, but even if it ended now I'd be very happy with the game; it might just be the best rhythm game I've ever played.

2. Satisfactory (PC Early Access, 2020) - 85:02 + 10:52 in 2022 + 1:33 in 2021 - January 29

After an aborted attempt to play this in 2021, I finally got to spend some quality time with the game. Satisfactory's greatest trick is how, for most of the game, it manages to ratchet up the complexity while giving you the tools to manage that complexity. Inevitably, your factory bases will become overgrown with conveyor belts and power lines scattered everywhere; inevitably, you'll tear some of it down and rebuild it in a more organized manner as you learn how to set up assembly lines and pipe inputs and outputs where they need to go. But by the game's current endgame, that complexity spills over into tedium; there are just so many machines to set up, so many steps to take into account, and so many resources that need to be brought in from all over the map. Another rebuild is in the offing, I can feel, but not until the game gets more content beyond Tier 8. All that said, what a fascinating game; I look forward to its final release to see just how big the behemoth can get.

3. Fire Emblem Engage (Switch, 2023) - 59:12 - February 15

I went back to look at my notes for Fire Emblem Fates, because I think if I had to compare this game to any of the Fire Emblems I've played previously, it's probably Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. All these years later, it's hard to remember what I liked or disliked about the game, outside of broad contours: gameplay great, story terrible. Nevertheless it was my favourite of the three Fates campaigns. Engage follows the same formula and feels like it should be just as successful as a result. But after playing Three Houses, it felt like a better overall package than Conquest, and I think it also beats Engage.

Engage is at its best when you're in the midst of an hour-long fight, working all the angles with your army of lords and retainers against a marauding horde of corrupted. It's significantly less compelling everywhere else: a story that really does feel like a Saturday morning cartoon (but becomes marginally less so as events unfold), and a set of between-level tasks that quickly become mostly pointless chores or awkward menu spam. (Why do you buy emblem ranks in the Arena but do everything else in the Ring Chamber, the only two areas of the Somniel that have load times?) It's a fine enough Fire Emblem, but 60 hours feels like enough time with Engage.

4. Rose and Camellia (iOS, 2020) - 0:09 - February 27

Randomly, I hear about the concept of "noble ladies slapping each other" from a stream I'm watching and am immediately intrigued. I track down the game and discover it was a Flash game from long ago, but that it'd been ported to mobile (and apparently is getting a Switch version?!). It is exactly as it says on the tin: you play a woman in pseudo-Victorian times who has married into a family of ~~rich jerks~~ nobles, but your husband has recently died and the other ladies of the family despise you. Clearly, your only option is to demand your rightful place as the head of the family by slapping the shit out of all your in-laws. The touchscreen controls work pretty well for slapping and dodging, so while the game is extremely short, it's also extremely satisfying. (It's okay to say that because it's women slapping other women, right? I hope?)

5. Rusty's Real Deal Baseball (3DS, 2014) - 4:28 - February 28

I'm not totally sure how to feel about this game. It's such a unique mix of entertainment product and commerce proposition that it gets really hard to separate the two, which is not always for the better. Rusty's Real Deal Baseball is infamous for its free-to-play DLC model: you get a demo of one of the baseball minigames, but then the minigames themselves are $4 each. Or are they? You buy them from an in-game character, Rusty, and you can haggle his prices down substantially, which then leads to ACTUAL discounts on each piece of DLC. Once you get every discount available to you, you'll drop the price from $40 to $16.

Needless to say, no other game I've ever played has handled real-world purchases in quite this manner. You really are encouraged to haggle with Rusty; the story of how Rusty and his family came to be is told partially through these negotiations, and if you DON'T haggle, there's an entire new character that shows up to basically hand Rusty a bunch of the items you'd normally be giving him as part of the negotiation process. But this leads to weird tensions. For example: should I look up a guide on how to get the best deal? It'll save me actual money, but it also feels like spoiling the game for myself a bit? Same with donuts, the currency that allows you to start negotiating sessions with Rusty (he LOVES donuts). You can run out of donuts, and then your only recourse is to keep playing the minigames until you get enough stamps to earn more donuts. Thankfully, you can replay minigames over and over to do so, but I didn't know this at the beginning and despaired that I'd locked myself out of discounts. This made me want to drop the game, which is kind of... weird?

In the process of all this bargaining, you learn about Rusty, his ten pups (that he can't tell apart--don't worry, neither can the pups), and his wife, who's recently gone missing after leaving something mysterious in Rusty's store. The story isn't super complex but it is a fun touch, and it actually does make you feel for ol' sadsack Rusty.

What about the minigames, I hear you cry. The good news is that they're fun! They're not all equally fun, of course, and the difficulty varies wildly depending on your particular skills; I found the batting minigames a bit more difficult, and the umpire one surprisingly easy for the first little while. It turns out I'm also really, REALLY good at cleaning baseball gloves. (Don't ask.) Are they all worth $4? Probably not, unless you're really good at them and manage to unlock the advanced challenges. Are they all worth an average of $1.60? Easier to swallow.

Rusty's Real Deal Baseball is such a bizarre proposition for a game. I don't know that they'll ever make another game like it. I'm glad I played it, though.

6. Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure (PC, 2023) - 4:49 - March 31

Horizon has always walked the tightrope between sim-like driving on the one hand, and arcade excitement on the other; clever simplifications of the driving model, the ability to turn literally any car into a road or rally monster, and the ease with which you can tailor the difficulty to your needs, all lead to an experience that feels empowering while still feeling tied to something vaguely resembling real-world physics, something arcade racers don't always get right (hello Cruis'n Blast). Rally Adventure doesn't quite make the grade; it's too compromised an experience to make you feel like you're really engaging in rally driving without requiring the precision and skillset of sim rally racing, falling too far in the direction of arcade play-acting.

The good news is that the routes in Rally Adventure mostly feel great to drive. I especially like that cross-country shenanigans are kept to a minimum; the worst races in the game are the final showdowns for each of the three teams, the only times the game deviates from its strict, well-defined rally routes on dirt and tarmac to throw dirt buggies and cross-country courses at you. But for the vast majority of the expansion, you're driving surprisingly technical and twisty routes. It's still Horizon; you're not driving Acropolis routes where the average speed drops to 20kph in some sections and you're cranking the wheel left and right constantly while trying to avoid falling into rock pits. But you do feel the difference from the main game's map, and that's a good thing.

The bad news is that the other way in which Rally Adventure tries to distinguish itself from the core experience fell flat for me. Rally Adventure's pace notes tries to split the difference between a strict sim approach, with complex and highly configurable pace notes, and the usual assist-heavy Horizon approach. The result, unfortunately, is something that doesn't really work that great unless you're in the "sweet spot" the game wants you to be in: driving B-class and A-class rally cars and being happy with the occasional missed turn. The pace notes are too vague to be of much use, and often come very late--sometimes too late for the turn you need to set up for. You can't change the speed or the complexity of the notes, either. It helps explain why Playground didn't offer an option to turn off the minimap for Horizon Rally events, even though they DID offer the option to turn off the racing line only for those events; because Playground seems to think you'll need the minimap.

Overall, Rally Adventure isn't bad. The actual driving is pretty decent, and a major step up from the Hot Wheels expansion from last year. But it does raise some questions about how much longer the Horizon model of expansions can continue, and maybe even the base game itself. For the first time, I felt like maybe it wasn't such a good idea to get the Ultimate Add-ons Pack sight unseen; there's a little bit of buyer's remorse. And the amount of time it took to put out these expansions, only to have them essentially be improved versions of the expansions from Forza Horizon 3 (or not even improved, in the case of Blizzard Mountain--still one of my favourites), is still something of a mystery to me.

7. Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End and the Secret Key (PS5, 2023) - 59:02 - April 15

Ryza 3 feels like half a great Atelier game stretched to double its size. It all still works as a game, but by the time I got to the end of it I was more than ready for the story to be over. As far as the trilogy goes, right now I'd put it between Ryza 1 and 3. It succumbs to some of the same story pacing issues as Ryza 1 (namely, shoving a ton of quests at the end that amount to going to a place just to watch some dialogue cutscenes, then going to another place to do the same, over and over), but it also benefits from some of the improvements made in Ryza 2, and because I understand the alchemy system better this time, it was also more fun to completely break alchemy this time around.

My biggest issue, then, is that every Atelier allows you to become ridiculously overpowered by the end of the game, but Ryza 3 allows you to destroy pretty much every enemy you face, on the hardest possible difficulty, many hours before the end. At that point, alchemy becomes pointless; what else could you possibly need to create? Experience and character level don't matter anymore. Gathering materials doesn't matter anymore, and is in fact an annoyance because by this point you've likely reached the limit of your container, and have to clean out the garbage every time you return to your atelier. Keys pretty much don't matter anymore because the synthesis skills, while useful normally, are now pointless because alchemy is pointless, and the buff/symbol skills don't matter because you can already beat the final boss with your left pinky. What you're left with at that point is a normal JRPG with a battle system that's occasionally annoying to execute consistently in, and a story that makes less and less sense as the game goes on and the quality of the localization drops.

What carries Ryza 3 in the end, as with most Atelier games, is the strength of the characters and the little stories that form from their interactions. Following the core cast over the course of three games is perhaps more rewarding here than in previous Atelier series, partially because there's a serious attempt to show how Ryza and their friends have grown from irrepressible teenagers to responsible adults, losing a little bit of their childhood innocence but gaining a new perspective on their lives. Previous series were great for bringing back old characters and seeing how they've changed, but there's never been as much of a narrative follow-through as there is here. So even though the actual plot of Ryza 3 devolves into a whole lot of Dragon Vein this and Code of the Universe that, tossing in events seemingly at random just to keep things moving along, it's the smaller moments between the characters that makes it worthwhile.

8. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch, 2019) - 82:28 + 4:32 in 2019 (NG+ Blue Lions) - April 27

It's been four years, but I've finally finished a second route in Three Houses. Playing Three Houses again after Engage, it's easy to see where each game excels and where each game suffers compared to the other. For my money, Three Houses is by far the better Fire Emblem, though it feels like that discussion's been done to death so I won't go into details here. The experience of playing a second route necessarily takes you through a significant portion of the game that doesn't change much from other routes (or at least the routes I played), but even in the early game you get different story beats and the characters you get to know are different, at least until you start recruiting your favourites. This led to a distinctly different experience leading up to the halfway point of the game; whereas in Crimson Flower it happens very suddenly and quickly, in Azure Moon things move quickly but there's also a sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop, and rushing to finish up loose ends before it does. It's nuances like this that really set Three Houses apart; it's just so much richer of an experience.

I don't think I'm up for a third playthrough anytime soon, though. The major issue with the game's structure is that there is a LOT of repetition, not just between routes but during each route, thanks to the monastery system. I do find the monastery sections more engaging (lol) than the Somniel in Engage; at least you feel like there's a point to talking to people, for example. But it all adds up, and despite mostly knowing what to do and having the benefit of New Game Plus, the second route took almost as long as the first, meaning I'm up to almost 180 hours in the game. But I do feel like it was worth playing through Azure Moon, and I am intrigued by what Golden Deer (and to a lesser extent Silver Snow) would have to offer.

9. Lost Judgment: The Kaito Files (PC, 2022) - 10:08 - May 7

While technically there is precedent for this kind of Yakuza experience--the Majima Saga in Yakuza Kiwami 2 feels like a prototype for The Kaito Files--this feels like the first time I've played a Yakuza or Judgment game that felt stripped right down to the bare essentials: no side stories, no new minigames, nothing really pushing you to engage with anything beyond the main story aside from a collectibles-driven quest that serves as the only significant optional content. Surprisingly, as someone who absolutely loves all the side stuff, The Kaito Files still works. Yes, there are some clunky bits here and there--one or two big infodumps to move the plot along started to lose my attention a bit--but on the whole it's a satisfying ten hours, and arguably a better story than Lost Judgment itself in many ways. The long-term impact on the story of subsequent games remains to be seen, but it's potentially exciting new territory for the series, and I look forward to seeing how RGG bring everything back into the mainline games.

10. Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly (PC, 2023) - 6:51 - May 11

It's more Coffee Talk, which in my book is a good thing. Though I didn't quite realize just how much it would be more Coffee Talk--while there are prominent new characters, the majority of the cast return from the first game and Episode 2 will occasionally make direct reference to previous events, though usually in a way that doesn't require you to remember everything about what happened (thankfully for me).

I think the writing handles the balancing act of trying to comment on contemporary social issues while mostly avoiding turning its characters into position papers, though it does retain the slightly awkward issue of having people jump into pretty deep and personal subjects about 80% of the time, as opposed to "hey how about them Mets" or "you won't believe what I saw on the bus today." But it still works; reuniting with the old cast and seeing the new patrons of the cafe was a delight.

11. System Shock (PC, 2023) - 24:27 - June 25

There are times when I hated this game. System Shock is a very early example of an immersive sim, so much so that it feels like it's missing aspects that would become a staple of later games like Deus Ex. The biggest one is that the game doesn't really offer you a variety of non-combat approaches; in other words, you're expected to fight, and fight a lot. This leads to some incredibly frustrating combat scenarios that in more modern games, you might be offered a way to avoid. System Shock also lacks many of the RPG elements that the sequel would incorporate; everything is just you, your equipment, and your wits.

But for all that, the remake of System Shock plays surprisingly similarly to latter-day successors like Prey. It's satisfying to piece together the stories of the crew of Citadel Station as they discover, fight, and fall to the malevolence of SHODAN; it's satisfying to roam Citadel Station's byzantine corridors in search of a medkit, a box of ammo, or maybe a new piece of equipment to better your chances for survival. And while the biggest old-school throwback is the game's complete unwillingness to hold your hand when juggling the many objectives and tasks you have to complete, that too is satisfying in a way; you have less of a sense of checking things off a list and more the feeling of retracing the steps of the crew before you and trying to complete the missions they could not.

Sometimes, System Shock is a hard game to like. But ultimately, I think I love it.

12. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (PC, 2020) - 7:25 - July 4

A side note: I didn't actually plan to finish this game on the fourth of July, lol.

In terms of campaigns, the Black Ops subseries has seen some shit. I've actually liked more of the campaigns than not--I actually remember being surprised to learn that people hated Black Ops III--but by the time we got to IV (sorry, IIII) Activision had given up on campaigns altogether, an ignomious way to end that particular lineage. By the time Cold War came around, my tenuous interest in the Call of Duty franchise had withered away to nothing, and it's only thanks to a Steam release and a wave of latter-day reviews praising the campaign that I decided to dip a toe back into the franchise.

Without digging into spoilers, Cold War is a, unexpected return to form. It's fun to play, its characters are mostly memorable, and it has a neat story that thankfully doesn't require you to love Ronald Reagan, as I feared when I first learned about his appearance in the game. It doesn't necessarily do anything new or novel, but it was the video game equivalent of a page-turner. I finished this one in two long sessions, a joy after bouncing off a lot of games last month.

13. Brotato (PC, 2023) - 44:19 - July 9

yeah seems alright

14. Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg (PC, 2023) - 12:47 - July 27

Having played the PS2 Plus version a few years ago, I was more prepared for playing Remake than most, but modern Atelier has made me a bit soft. Just like the original, the biggest source of anxiety in Marie Remake is the sense of unfamiliarity: you don't really have a sense of how long five years is at the beginning of the game, and you don't have a lot of direction as to what to do. The game technically doesn't even really tell you what the final exam is going to be until six months before the end!

None of this really matters, though, because as long as you engage with all the game's systems, failure is essentially impossible; you have to go out of your way to achieve the worst ending, and you'll probably get at least one of the better endings without even realizing it--or at least, that's how it worked out for me. Remake adds a few quality of life improvements that seem small on the surface but add up to be quite helpful. Being able to collect ingredients manually by walking to gathering spots, similar to how it works in modern Atelier titles, is a great addition. The addition of interim assignments from your teacher, Ingrid, can help keep you on track if you're not sure what to do. But the biggest addition is one Gust didn't even really tell us about: there's a whole "Story" guide now that tells you the unlock conditions for every event in the game, thus removing some of the unnecessary mystery around them that you'd just eliminate by looking them up in a FAQ instead.

As a result of all this, plus the huge glow-up in presentation and the addition of an Unlimited Mode, it's very easy to recommend this as the definitive way to play Marie for most people, especially newcomers. And if you really want that old-school experience anyways, the Deluxe Edition includes a port of the mobile version of the PS1 Plus game.

15. Slay the Spire (Switch, 2019) - 4:44 - August 6

Debated whether to count this one but whatever, I did in fact finish a round of Slay the Spire, and it was a Heart kill to boot! I played this on vacation, hanging out at a friend's place for a week. Slay the Spire was the game I introduced him to a few years back when I last saw him, before the pandemic, and we would take turns trying to beat the game with the Ironclad. I think this might even have been before Ascensions were introduced, I'm not sure.

Since then, I mostly stopped playing; I like Slay the Spire but I didn't find it addictive like many other people did. My friend, on the other hand, went on to achieve nearly every feat possible; Ascension 20 across all characters, knows every card and what they synergize with like they're the names of his children, etc. So returning years later, I was suddenly the student and him the teacher. Thanks to a bunch of really good card rolls and more than a little guidance from him, I achieved my first Silent win, and also took down the Heart in the process.

He's stopped playing the game because he realized a while back that it no longer filled the particular void he needed: he was so good at the game that he needed to play at Ascension 20 to enjoy it, but at that level it required just a bit too much attention to get to the end of a run, and runs would take a few hours. So I gave him my latest not-quite-forever game: Brotato. lol

16. Starfield (PC, 2023) - 68:11 - October 4

Sometimes you get a game that feels like less than the sum of its parts, a game where the attempts to dress up the skeleton of game mechanics and item statistics don't quite do the job. Starfield asks you to make a lot of decisions over its running time, and in theory these should all tie back to morals, principles, contexts and personalities. But it rarely feels that way; instead it feels more mechanical. Which faction do you want to make an enemy of? Do you want to play as a good character or an evil character? Starfield presents choices to you on a silver platter without really asking you to engage with the consequences of those choices. This has always been true to some extent in the BGS games I've played; you always end up approaching demigod status by the end. But for some reason it bugs me more in Starfield than it did in any Fallout game.

Starfield has a lot of systems, but it never really feels like they support one another. The outpost system feels mostly superfluous, with no meaningful gameplay that I could find from it and no major contributions to the other systems in the game like crafting and research unless you really go hardcore into outposts. Crafting constantly feels hobbled, with most mods locked behind bizarre material shortages, stalled research projects, or both. Companions feel less meaningful than the Fallout games I've played, and it can even be hard to tell them apart sometimes in terms of their moral stances.

But there are times while playing Starfield where the old BGS magic seems to return briefly. Faction storylines are interesting, if not necessarily amazing writing. Screwing around with ships reminds me of spending hours building settlements in Fallout 4 for fun. It's these moments that make me think Starfield could serve as an amazing foundation for interesting stories and engaging gameplay. But it needs a lot of work, probably from modders, to get Starfield to that point.

17. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch, 2023) - 94:37 - November 8

The problem with Tears of the Kingdom is that all the good parts of it feel too reminiscent of Breath of the Wild, and many of the bad parts are either the result of incorporating too much of Breath of the Wild's structure into this game, or just making things more difficult or grindy. The result, for me at least, is a game that even at its best feels like something you've already played, but with significantly more friction involved. It's been a while since I've been this happy to dump a game out of my backlog, and it'll probably be a long time before I touch Tears of the Kingdom again, if ever.

I just want to briefly mention the thing that gave me the most trouble: in Tears of the Kingdom I felt significantly more fragile and weaker pretty much throughout the whole game. I did the Wind Temple first, and that turned out to be relatively straightforward and was just challenging enough to be interesting. I figured this would be the template for all the other bosses going forward, but instead most of the encounters after that felt like running into a brick wall, and then having that brick wall collapse on you. Some regular enemies would routinely two-hit me, never mind bosses, and I'd wonder if I just had to get really good at dodging, if I needed to spend more time finding better armor, or if I was just bad at the game in general.

Turns out the answer is that I needed to spend a lot more energy trying to upgrade my armor. Because the Great Fairy Fountains this time around are locked out, and because it takes a while to even find where you're supposed to start the quest to unlock them, I spent a lot of time with basic, un-upgraded armor. Doing this in Tears of the Kingdom is tantamount to running blindfolded with a knife held at your throat. I ran around Hyrule for five or six hours trying to find the stupid stable where the band hung out. But even after you get all the Great Fairies to open their shells, you still have to upgrade your armor, and this turns out to be an incredibly fun exercise in hunting down various enemies and grinding them for materials.

Some, like Hinoxes, are thankfully not so bad, thanks to the existence of guides that tell you where they all are. But then you have Lizalfo Tails, aka the single most annoying ingredient to find in the game in bulk. Apparently, to have a shot at reliably farming them, you have to a) find basic Lizalfos, b) sneak up on them or attack them from behind, but c) ONLY with a weapon that has the word "sword" in it, meaning nothing that's been fused with something, aka the thing you've probably been doing the ENTIRE FUCKING GAME because that's the only way you can get decent weapons.

Only when I finally got up to 56 armor at the end of the game did I feel at all safe. And then I ran into a Lynel encounter that you have to do in order to finish the game, and even with 56 armor I'd still get wrecked in only a few hits, while it took probably 100 hits or more to take it down. This is after 90+ hours in the game, running all over Hyrule for the second time, and feeling like the game should've been over at least 20 hours ago.

I was surprised when I played Breath of the Wild and loved it, because I didn't have a lot of experience with the Zelda series back then and the only other game I'd played kind of lost me after a few hours. I was even more surprised to play this and discover that not only did I not love it, I actually kind of despised it at times. In a year full of disappointments, Tears of the Kingdom qualifies as one of the milder ones, because it is still mostly a good game at heart. But between Breath of the Wild fatigue and the new changes to armor and difficulty necessitating a ton more grinding than before, it is absolutely a game that destroyed much of the goodwill I had for it at the beginning.

18. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PC, 2023) - 34:10 - November 27

All achievements complete--the first and probably last time I've done so in a Yakuza/Like a Dragon game. It'll definitely be out of reach in Infinite Wealth, that's for sure!

I'm glad Gaiden exists just because it suggests a certain willingness from the Ryu Ga Gotoku team to experiment somewhat with the structure of their games. Gaiden sits somewhere between Lost Judgment's 10-hour DLC episode, The Kaito Files, and a fully fledged RGG game. It's mostly successful at establishing a good middle ground between those two extremes, but I think there's still tinkering to be done with the formula. The game was apparently intended originally to be a DLC add-on for Infinite Wealth before being expanded into a full game, and these origins show in multiple ways.

First, the obvious way: the story, especially the last chapter or two, has direct ties to the events of Like a Dragon 7. I can't speak to whether someone who hasn't played that game will be lost here, but it certainly seems possible; entire groups of characters are transplanted into Gaiden without much in the way of context. But the second, more subtle way in which it shows is the overall structure of the game, which is pretty heavily dependent on side activities to bulk up the middle portion of the game. This is not necessarily a bad thing; sidestories and minigames have long been one of Yakuza's signature appeals. But it does lend everything a certain quality I've found in games like Saints Row IV, where tutorials for minigames and side activities essentially become main quest content; cool for anyone who was planning to play only the critical path I guess, but if you were going to sample all the side stuff anyways it feels a little bit like you've been cheated.

Setting all that aside, though, I have relatively few complaints about Gaiden. It works as a way to say goodbye (again) to this part of Kazama Kiryu's life, perhaps more so than Yakuza 6 (though I think that was an acceptable ending for him as well). And if the story takes some liberties here and there, that'd just be in keeping with every Yakuza game to date. Gaiden won't be my favourite Yakuza/Like a Dragon game but I definitely enjoyed my time with it.

19. Forza Motorsport (PC, 2023) - 33:50 - December 6

I didn't actually finish this game, but I am absolutely done with it.

I wish you could store sensations in your brain and relive them, because I am honestly trying to imagine if I was this livid over Gran Turismo 7, a game I do not like and made me question if I still like these console sim racers. Forza Motorsport may have sealed the deal; either these games really are not for me anymore, or Forza Motorsport is a piece of garbage masquerading as a game. If I have to dodge one more homicidal AI trying to pass me on the inside of a turn and spinning me out because it doesn't brake, EVEN THOUGH I AM EXPECTED TO MAKE WAY FOR AIS IN THE SAME SITUATION OR ELSE SUFFER PENALTIES, it will be too fucking soon. The game routinely runs at 45fps or less for no apparent reason. There are way too many menus and the game even has a bug where if you hit A too much it actually CANCELS your attempt to skip the menu. The driving model is great if you actually get to experience it but you often don't because of the stuttering and low framerate. And then an AI will fuck you in the side for no apparent reason and forever more you'll brake late into turns because you're paranoid about braking too early, having a car plow into your backside, and you taking a penalty for it because fuck you.

Fuck Forza Motorsport.

20. Mirror's Edge Catalyst (PC, 2016) - 10:26 - December 10

Catalyst is at its best when it strips away everything extraneous and asks you to do one simple thing: run. Just get from point A to point B, no voices in your ear, no arbitrary time limits, no bizarre story justifications or overly emo cutscenes. It's a shame, then, that the game throws in so many elements that feel besides the point.

Now that I've played the whole game, I think I've finally made my piece with the open-world aspect of the game. The architecture frequently doesn't make any sense if you try to think of the world as an actual functioning city, but that's okay; the original Mirror's Edge wasn't some beacon of verisimilitude either. And while it does still bug me a little bit that the connections between areas are few and far between, it turns out that when you just want to get somewhere fast, fast travel is pretty easy to unlock. Plus it does give you the opportunity to refine your approach to routes you'll be taking a lot to get from one area to another.

The real problem with the open world is that it's a map full of unnecessary distractions. The activities I enjoyed most were the ones that didn't interrupt my momentum much: gridleaks and electronic chips were collectibles that took maybe a second or two to collect in most cases. Dashes and deliveries, on the other hand, I avoided like the plague. The irony is that they're not intended to take a long time; you're only allotted maybe a minute at most for each one (which raises some questions about certain deliveries; are you seriously telling me this bottle of herbs will go bad if I don't deliver it in a minute or less?). But I pretty much never managed to beat the time limit on the first try, or the third, or sometimes even the tenth. Every time you fail, you have to restart, and every time you have to restart, you spend five or ten seconds in a loading screen. It's a real momentum killer, and after two playthroughs and some forum commentary I finally learned to aggressively avoid them. You don't need them and you'll have a way better time.

The story is barely worth talking about, except for all the characters who seemingly go out of their way to make themselves seem like assholes for no reason. That's pretty much everyone in the game, by the way. Add it all up and you get a sublime gameplay experience that gets in its own way too often and a story that probably would've been better if it had remained in the background, much like in the original Mirror's Edge.

21. The Crew (PC, 2014) - 11:50 + 5:06 in 2020 - December 23

The worst part about The Crew is that it's always online. But setting that aside, the second worst part about The Crew is that it's not just a terrible game throughout; it's got some interesting ideas in it, and that's what makes it all the more frustrating when the bad bits get in the way.

The less said about the story, the better, so I'll just say that this is the poster child for why racing games perhaps shouldn't have stories. It's not that I don't like dumb stories; I played Need for Speed 2015, after all, and even though all the cutscenes are incredibly cringey, they're still somehow entertaining and I didn't feel like I despised everyone by the end of the game. The Crew probably has fewer lines of dialogue, but boy does it make them count when it comes to inflicting psychic damage.

The actual racing feels like it's trying to thread this weird line between arcade racer, sim racer, and... RPG? And it ends up satisfying pretty much none of the above. Even by the end of the game I never felt like I got fully used to the game's handling model; when Forza Horizon 2 is your competition, this is a major problem. That said, you can have fun with the game; it's not terrible in the driving department. The best thing The Crew does is add activities along the various highways, back roads and mountain trails crisscrossing its open-world version of the continental United States. It adds some spice to the otherwise mundane act of driving across the state to get to your next mission, and most of the challenges are fun, though when you come across one that doesn't match the car you happen to be in, it's a little frustrating.

That brings me to where the biggest gameplay issue lies: The Crew feels like it gets in its own way a lot with all the systems it's thrown in to give players a sense of progression. You have five different classes of cars you'll need to spec up to compete; why? Did we really need both a Dirt class and a Raid class when they do pretty much the same things? Same with Perf class and Circuit class. There's a whole bucketload of parts you'll need to install for any given car, and they're doled out in the most maddening way possible: at random, as prizes for finishing missions and challenges. In theory, you get better parts for getting higher scores, but everything goes through RNG and so often it feels like the opposite: you're winning terrible parts for doing really well in a challenge or winning amazing parts after just barely scraping by.

The game was made in 2014, and man does it show in some ways. Everything has loading screens, and while this is usually little more than an annoyance, it literally destroys your momentum when completing the various challenges scattered across the map; if you win a part and decide to equip it, once you exit the challenge results screen, the game fades to black and respawns you into the world, but completely stopped. It's frustrating to have to get back up to speed every time you upgrade your car in this way, and while in the grand scheme of things it's not at all a big deal, it adds friction to the experience. A lot of things in The Crew feel this way.

Finally, the online requirement. Why did I finally get to The Crew now, after all these years? Because the game servers are shutting down next March, after which it will literally be impossible to play this game unless some enterprising fans figure out how to reverse-engineer the server code. No campaign, no challenges, nothing. This is frankly ridiculous and it's a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of spending money on the later Crew games; thankfully it looks like I scored this one for free, so I'm not losing anything.

PLAYED RECENTLY
Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator (PC, 2022) - 4:00
Alan Wake 2 (PC, 2023) - 3:42
Grand Theft Auto Online: Los Santos Drug Wars (PC, 2022) - 11:15

PURGATORY
Persona 5 Royal (PC, 2022) - 6:19 + 19:18 in 2022
FUSER (PC, 2020) - 2:52 in 2022
Monster Train (PC, 2020) - 1:30
Bloons TD 6 (PC, 2018) - 0:42
Yo-kai Watch 3 (3DS, 2019) - 1:37
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! (Android, 2018) - 3:56
Boneraiser Minions (PC, 2023) - 2:02
Nomad Survival (PC, 2022) - 1:51
Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S (PC, 2022) - 0:29
Q Remastered (PC, 2023) - 1:19
The Big Con (PC, 2021) - 0:32
Star Trek: Resurgence (PC, 2023) - 0:27
Densha De Go! Plug & Play (Standalone, 2020) - 2:50
Minecraft (PC, 2011) - 9:58
Dave the Diver (PC, 2023) - 1:23
Like a Dragon: Ishin (PC, 2023) - 1:47
Touhou Mystia's Izakaya (PC, 2021) - 1:45
HoloCure: Save the Fans (PC Early Access, 2022) - 14:19
Cities: Skylines II (PC, 2023) - 18:44
Voxelgram (PC, 2019) - 0:55

Blindy · Jan 1, 2023

2 year streak running. Thank you again Wozzer for running this.

PS5:
9) Spongebob Squarepants & The Cosmic Shake 2/9, 2/11, 2/13-2/14
16) Jumping Flash 3/25
19) Resident Evil 4 Remake 3/25-3/28, 4/2, 4/6, 4/8-4/9
21) Pac Man World Re-Pac 5/6, 5/9-5/12
27) Haven 8/14, 8/19, 8/27-8/29
28) Sea of Stars 8/31-9/4, 9/9-9/13, 9/20-9/24
29) Resident Evil 4 Remake: Separate Ways DLC 9/30, 10/4, 10/7
38) Spider Man 2(Platinum) 10/24, 11/1, 11/7, 11/21-11/22, 11/24-11/26

XBX:
8) Hi-Fi Rush 1/25, 2/4-2/5, 2/8
11) GRIS 2/27
12) Atomic Heart 2/20-2/21, 2/23-2/24, 2/26, 3/2, 3/4-3/5
15) Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty 2/26, 3/3-3/6, 3/7-3/13, 3/18-3/19
23) Planet of Lana 5/23, 5/27
24) Cassette Beasts 5/25-5/29, 6/3-6/4
26) Fuga: Melodies of Steel 7/31-8/2, 8/5-8/7
32) Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery 11/3-11/5
35) Bramble: The Mountain King 11/7, 11/12, 11/14
37) Jusant 11/21-11/22, 11/24
Lies of P 9/25-

NSW:
2) Syberia 1 12/29/22, 12/31/22-1/2
3) VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action 1/6-1/8, 1/10-1/11, 1/13-1/20
7) Syberia 2 2/6-2/8
14) Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo 3/9, 3/11-3/15, 3/18-3/19
25) Master Detective Archives: Rain Code 7/1-7/30
31) Super Mario Brothers: Wonder 10/20-10/25, 10/28
33) Sonic Superstars 10/17, 10/30, 11/6-11/7
36) Super Mario RPG Remake 11/18-11/21
Mega Man Battle Network 4/16
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 5/13-

PS4:
The Silver Case 6/15-

XB1:
1) Telling Lies 12/31/22-1/1
4) Donut County 1/21
6) 999: Nine Doors Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors 1/24-1/30
10) OPUS: Echo of Starsong 2/11, 2/16, 2/19-2/20
20) Coffee Talk Pt II: Hibiscus & Butterflies: 4/19, 4/21-4/22, 4/24, 4/27, 4/29-4/30
34) Monster Prom XXL 11/8, 11/11

PS3:
5) Rayman Origins 1/12-1/13, 1/21, 1/28-1/29

3DS/PSP:

PC/Mobile:
13) Hope Left Me 3/11
17) The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog 3/31
18) Pineapple on Pizza 4/3
22) Edda Cafe 5/22-5/23
30) Spirit Hunter: NG 9/29, 10/7-10/8, 10/11, 10/14-10/17

Classy Tomato · Jan 1, 2023

I need something to push me to play and write my thoughts about games I play, so I'll try to give it a go!

Duxxy3 · Jan 1, 2023

2022
2021
2020
2019
2018

01 : Gears of War Judgement - XSX - 1/1/23
The best way that I can describe this game is comfort food. It's always good when you have it. Day, night, bad mood or good mood. It's always brings you comfort.
New years always refreshes my interest in replaying my favorites. I'm also playing FFVIIr. That's a new game, but with a large dose of nostalgia for an old fart like me.
Good start to the year. Going by the release calendar, I'm going to be a very busy man.

02 : Final Fantasy VII Remake - PC - 1/2/23
What a weird mix of excitement, over things new, as well surges of nostalgia for a world and story that's very familiar to me. Makes for an interesting experience. It took me a while to get into this. I played FFVII loooooooong ago, when it was originally released. Probably before a lot of the actors in this game were even born. So I'm pretty attached to that version. I remember most of what happens in the game.
The remake was basically a stretched out script of the first maybe 10% of the original game. I will admit that there's a decent amount of fluff in the game, but nothing ever so bad that it got annoying. Overall a great experience.
Music and sound effects were a delight from beginning to end. The game is also gorgeous. It doesn't have all of the new ray tracing tech in it, but I don't think games really need it. The world and the characters look how I'd always dreamt they would look. Performance on PC was better than I anticipated. I was even able to bump up the internal resolution and it still ran great.
The only real complaint I have is that I won't be able to play FFVII Rebirth on PC at launch. I'll probably have to wait anywhere from 6 months to a year. I guess that gives me a bit more time to buy and play Reunion. I always wanted to play Zack's story.

03 : Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 2022 - PC - 1/4/23
What a fucking horrible campaign. Infinity Ward should be relieved of making campaigns in the future. Awful design and the most bugged COD campaign that I have ever played. And I've been playing them since the first Call of Duty.
I'm on the third to last mission in the game and a game breaking bug has happened. I can't progress. I'm calling this piece of shit done. Fuck Infinity Ward for this mess.

04 : Gears of War - XSX - 1/11/23
Note to future self: do not play this version of the game at 60fps. The fps increase also comes with a huge increase to the amount of damage taken.
I still prefer this version over the ultimate edition. The extra stage in Ultimate is annoying. Does this version hold up graphically? Nah. It's really showing its age now. Sound is still good though.

05 : Dead Space 2- PC - 1/15/23
After the huge disappointment that is/was Callisto Protocol, I am cautiously optimistic about the Dead Space Remake. So I wanted the Dead Space experience without playing the first Dead Space before Dead Space Remake. Hence Dead Space 2.
This is still a blast to play through. Sound is good with speakers, but it really excels with headphones. Graphics are still good enough for a 12 year old game. Combat is flat out better than whatever the hell they were thinking in Callisto Protocol.

06 : Final Fantasy VII Integrade - PC - 1/17/23
I really enjoyed this little DLC. Yuffie was a delight and her playstyle was unique and fun. I like the synergy mechanic as well. I didn't get into the mini games, but I never get into the mini games of any game.
Overall it was a fun few hours.

07 : Titanfall 2 - PC - 1/21/23
I am always blown away by how good this campaign is, every single time I play through it. If there is a perfect FPS campaign, this has to be in consideration for it. I really hope we'll see a Titanfall 3 at some point.

08 : World of Warcraft Dragonflight - PC - 1/22/23
Level 70 Demon Hunter.
There's some good and some not so good in this expansion. Leveling, for the most part, is pretty good. But content at level 70 isn't particularly compelling. Dailies aren't really dailies. There are no Covenants to be a part of. There's no class hall to hang out in. There's not much of anything to upgrade, other than gear. After three expansions of logging in to do stuff, I don't know what to do really. Renown/reputation grind isn't particularly fun because the rewards don't seem interesting. This feels like an expansion where you have to actively go find things to do, rather than those things just landing in your lap.
I also don't like how non-viable ground mounts are in this expansion. How the only truly viable mounts are the 4 dragonriding mount. Which kind of sucks for someone that has collected a lot of mounts over the years. This is the downside of creating an entire expansion around a new form of travel. I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything when using a ground mount in Legion, BFA or Shadowlands. All of those zones were designed specifically with ground mounts in mind. It was easier with a flying mount, when those came out, but I wouldn't say it was required. But dragonriding really is required in Dragonflight. The zones are enormous and so vertical compared to the last three expansions.

09 : Cyberpunk 2077 - PC - 1/27/23
Female V play through on Steam. Aldecados ending with Judy.
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite games of all time. There's a lot more depth than I'm used to from games that I replay. Was cool to play as the female V. The voice actor is still good, and for whatever reason when she says Panam it doesn't sound so bizarre. Not sure why the male V sounded so weird at points.
I stuck with mostly annihilation and reflex, just like my first run. I made some different choices this time around. Saved some people that should have been saved and did not save other people that I didn't want to save. Aside from the angry Samurai, I'd say this is the happiest ending possible.

10 : Dead Space Remake - PC - 1/31/23
This is right up there with Resident Evil 1 and 2 remakes for best remakes of all time. Motive did an excellent job with making additions and changes to the game while still remaining true to Dead Space.
This is everything that I hoped for an so much more. My first game, in a long time, where I wasn't even a little bit disappointed. Elden Ring and Ragnarok are both great games that came out last, but they were also disappointments at the same time. The only way that I could be any happier is if performance was smoothed out a bit more. A minor gripe.
This month was a fantastic way to start off the year.

11 : Resident Evil 2 Remake - PC - 2/10/23
Leon B route.
It's crazy to me that this game is already 4 years old. It doesn't feel or look that old. Games really have not changed all that much the last 5 or 6 years. High resolutions, but that's about it.
I'm not sure if my memory is going a little bit, but playing through this wasn't as automatic as it was in the past. Maybe I've just slowed down on how often I play the game though.
I'm in what could be one of the few lulls of the years where I'm not buying a game for weeks in a row. I have Atomic Heart, Wanted and Metroid Prime Remastered coming out within the next week and they're all at least on my radar, if not immediate purchases. Even Returnal for PC is on that list. Crazy year this might be.

12 : Metal Slug X - PC - 2/11/23
It's that near annual tradition of playing shoot em ups in the winter time. There was a Steam bundle for Metal Slug 1, 2(X) and 3.
Love my elite controller for this. The dpad is just sublime. I finished the game with only 20 continues too. On easy. God knows how many continues I would have used on medium or hard. I'd probably be using a continue per screen.
It's nice to have short games like this to play. Would be nice to not have slowdown, but it is what it is. Still lots of fun.

13 : Metal Slug - PC - 2/11/23
I was kind of shocked that I never finished this game before. I think I've only ever finished Metal Slug 3. Metal Slug 2(x) plays a bit better than the first game. A little more responsive.

14 : Cyberpunk 2077 - PC - 2/28/23
So what did I mostly do in February? I played Cyberpunk. I played a lot of Cyberpunk. I did all of the gigs, all of the NCPD scanners. I did every ending, including the one that I spent 30 hours grinding to get through (the don't fear the reaper ending where enemy levels are a locked 50). My little netrunner was an absolutely beast. Then I got tired of not having anything to do, so I made another character and went through the entire game again. Another 30 something hours building up and then finishing with Rogue. I used a combination of Lizzie handgun, smart SMG, Finger's non-lethal melee weapon and near the end I used a small amount of quickhacks. That smart SMG annihilated the Arasaka in Rogue's ending. I clubbed smasher. It was brutal.

15 : Dead Space Remake - PC - 3/14/23
New game plus, with alternate ending!
Ya know, I think I had more fun this time around than I did the first time. I think that's generally the way it goes for me in Dead Space. NG+, with all of its upgraded weapons, is just a bit easier and a bit more fun for me. Less about resource management and more about the environment and what's happening moment to moment.
I got some doozies coming up soon. Diablo 4 this week. Resident Evil 4 remake next week, and The Last of Us Part 1 for PC only a few days after that. One of the most loaded lineups I've seen in years.

16 : Resident Evil 3 Remake - PC - 3/19/23
I really wanted to get this done before the RE4 remake release coming out in a few days. After playing the demo for that game the last week, Jill feels like she is ripped straight out a Platinum title. Responsive, fast as hell and can dodge just about anything. We'll see if Leon's other tricks balance things out a bit.
This is my old save that doesn't have any infinite weapons. Just the upgraded handgun and the hot dog knife. I think that's good enough with being broken. I ended up turning off RT in the game because it was really making my 3070 work overtime. RT is nice, but the more and more I've been around with it, the more and more I'd be fine with just letting it go for now.

17 : Resident Evil 4 Remake - PC - 3/27/23
This was absolutely amazing. I was skeptical after the demo. Leon seemed sluggish. The knife was breakable and used for multiple things. It was a little too hectic with too few tools.
I am so glad to be wrong about my first impressions of the game. So glad that I trusted Capcom. RE4 remake made me feel like I was playing RE4 for the first time. The sense of action and adventure was incredible.
The Resident Evil series has some of the best remakes in the history of gaming. Resident Evil 1 remake. Resident Evil 2 remake. Resident Evil 4 remake outdoes both of them. I am going to replay this game a lot, for years to come.
So far the leading candidate for my GOTY are Dead Space and RE4. If the lineup of games for the rest of the year comes even close to what we think we're getting, this might be the single greatest year for games ever.

18 : Resident Evil 4 Remake - PC - 4/8/23
Well this is when I was supposed to talk about finishing TLOU Part 1 on PC, but that turned out to be such a shitty port that I stopped playing it.
But hey, RE4 remake is fantastic. It's right up there with RE2 in terms of replayability. I finished my unbreakable knife upgrade and upgraded a handgun, shotgun and rifle to max. I'm debating whether or not to get the unlimited ammo rocket launcher. I think it would make the game too easy.
I think with the next round I'll upgrade the regular rifle and punisher handgun. Probably leave the shotgun and unbreakable knife alone. Speaking of which, I don't think the unbreakable knife makes combat unbalanced. At least not too much. It's good for ammo conservation. I'd be OK with removing the 1 hit ground kills if it meant the normal knife was unbreakable.

19 : The Last of Us Part 1 - PC - 4/9/23
Great game. Absolutely dreadful port.

20 : The Last of Us Left Behind Remastered - PS5 - 4/10/23
It's been quite a while since I played through this. Been a while since I finished a game on my PS5. As nice as it is to have games from Microsoft and from Sony on PC, it has really hurt my interest in playing games on console. This would have been yet another PC completion if TLOU1 port was any good.

21 : The Last of Us Part 2 - PS5 - 4/22/23
15th time through the game.
It's been about 8 months since I played the game. That was intentional. I wanted to wait to play through the series again until after the TV show finished its run. Wasn't expecting to wait for the show to finish its run and the PC version of Part 1 to get into a playable state.
Reviews for part 1 made it seem like the gameplay would be adjusted to play more like part 2, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Part 1 plays like the original/remaster and Part 2 plays differently. Getting on to 3 years and it still plays wonderfully.
Maybe the game is creeping up my GOAT list. I don't think I have it ahead of TLOU, because that has a better story, but I can't deny that my opinion of the game has only improved over time.
As always I used this to test out some headphones. HD660s is still my go to. That hasn't changed. The IEM's that I bought last year are actually decent with games. Maybe not for competitive, but certainly single player. My newer IEMs (raptgo hook-x) are better, but the comfort of them is concerning. With that said, their positional audio was a bit more accurate than the other IEMs I've used. Probably a bit above something like the HD58x for gaming.

22 : Cyberpunk 2077 - PC - 4/24/23
I've been playing another new save file in the background. I think it really started when TLOU1 came out for PC. It was/is broken and I didn't have anything else to play. So back to Cyberpunk once in a while.
Originally I started off as a stealth character, but using a "cool" stealth build is not that easy, or effective. So I wiped my stats and did a bit of everything build. I didn't overuse ultimate contagion like in my last build. I largely stuck to handguns and the weaker quickhacks. Used a shotgun as well.
More likely than not I'll play this again this year. I won't count it again though. Three times is enough. C'est la V.

23 : Gears of War 3 - XSX - 5/10/23
Back to one of my favorites. Just a typical play through. Took me a little bit to get into it, but after the barge ride I went through the game in very short order. Still lots of fun. Still looks and sounds great.
I'm hoping that this is the year that we hear about a Gears collection. Seems like it's been rumored for years at this point. Who knows, maybe a month from now I'll be playing all these old Gears titles again (hopefully on PC).

24 : Gears 5 - PC - 5/13/23
Finally got a working replacement for my worn out series 2 controller. Really wanted to play something that requires a controller on PC, but didn't want to get into Jedi yet. So back to the Gears 5 save I've been chipping away at. Gears 5 reminds me of The Evil Within 2 in some ways. Really cool start, then gets dull and then you don't want to stop playing til it's over.
The combat in these Gears titles is still amazing. Graphics are phenomenal and runs so well. Sound is great. The only part that they really missed on was that second act. The third act as well, but it's not quite as bogged down as that second act. I hope they avoid those open world sections in the next game. I think it harms the quality of the game.
I'm about 80% certain that this will be the year we'll see Gears of War 6. It's a little overdue at this point. I don't think it'll be released this year (pretty sure collection will be), but I think we'll see what The Coalition has been up to.

25 : Metal Slug 3 - PC - 5/14/23
Think I've mentioned a few times that I am horrible at these games. Well that continues to be true with this Metal Slug as well. 30 continues on the easiest difficulty. But I still enjoy playing them. I think I've finished the first three games of the series. I'll have to look up the rest when we next have a Steam summer sale.

26 : Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare Remastered - PC - 5/20/23
It's been quite a while since I finished this. Maybe not quite the looker of newer COD titles, but still better than the original and has controller support.

27 : Call of Duty Advanced Warfare - PC - 5/21/23
While playing this I asked myself, "are we finally ready for Advanced Warfare 2"? I think we're getting close. COD has been boots on the ground for a while now and I think within the next two years we'll get a futuristic COD again. Advanced Warfare seems like the best choice because it's futuristic without being borderline sci-fi, like Infinite Warfare.
The game still holds up well, aside from sex offender CEO. The cutscene graphics are still top notch even in 2023. In game is still OK. Sound is alright, but could be better (that was always the case).

28 : Alan Wake - PC - 5/29/23
The most exciting part of Sony's "E3" Showcase was the Alan Wake 2 trailer. It looks so damn good that I just had to play through the original again. If the sequel is anywhere as good as the first game, I will be a very happy camper.
I downloaded the original PC version and the remaster. I preferred the overall look of the original and played through that. I think the remaster was made in mind for consoles but got a quick PC port.

29 : Spider-Man Miles Morales - PC - 6/5/23
OK I'll admit that I got a little hyped after seeing Spider-Man 2. Found a decent deal on this and I was just more into it than I was the new Zelda. Sorry Nintendo.
After playing through Spider-Man Remastered plus DLC on PC, then Miles Morales on PS5 in the fall, I beat the ever loving hell out of enemies in this game. Even, you know who, was way easier this time around. Think I might have even played it on normal difficulty too.
Game looks gorgeous on my PC. Near the end I turned up everything to basically max - ray tracing, DLAA. Frame generation game through. I'm more impressed with that than I expected.

30 : Diablo IV - PC - 6/10/23
I'll get the bad out of the way. Always online really stinks. Grinding for levels because zones aren't designed around a straight campaign play through, mostly stinks. The save system in the game is just atrocious.
With that said I loved the game. Performed great on my PC. Looked great. Sounds effects, music and voice acting were all top notch. I really enjoyed the story and can't wait to see what happens next.

31 : Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 - XSX - 6/13/23
Been a while since I played this, so it was a little fresh for me. Still fun and occasionally frustrating. Would be great if we saw Modern Warfare 3 remaster at some point.

32 : Tomb Raider - PC - 6/19/23
It's been quite a while since I played through this one. I played through Rise of the Tomb Raider each year, but not Tomb Raider 2013. Aside from the camera shaking all over the damn place, this holds up really well. Graphics maybe aren't great anymore, but boy oh boy does the sound hold up. Probably still sounds better than most games made today. Gunplay and movement are still great.
It's still a good game, even after 10 years. These late PS3/360 games hold up pretty well on PC.

33 : Gears of War: Aftermath - XSX - 6/19/23
I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to play this on Xbox. I was hoping that Not-E3 would come with a shadow launch of the Gears Collection on PC, and I'd be playing it on my PC. But that didn't happen. The collection has been rumored for years, even a hint from Phil himself, and still nothing. Maybe they're just doing more to the games than I expect, or maybe they don't exist at all.
Have to admit my hype for Gears is pretty low right now, and I was hoping that this might help. Not sure how much it did.

34 : Metro Last Light - PC - 6/25/23
I still don't like how they handled the morality system in this game. It's something that Exodus did much better. Ah well.
Still a good looking game during some points. Not throughout, but there's definitely sections that are still very impressive.
There's really nothing like the Metro games.

35 : Diablo 3 - PC - 6/26/23
Necromancer base Diablo 3 game.
Never played this class for more than 20 levels. But for whatever reason it clicked today and I decided to go all they way through the regular campaign. That might have been the fastest I've ever been through the campaign with a brand new character. Acts 2, 3 and 4 were just a blur of corpse explosion and commanding skeletons.
At the moment if someone asked if I prefer Diablo 3 or Diablo 4, my answer would solidly be Diablo 3. It has over a decade of polish to it that Diablo 4 just does not have. The new game is very very rough and need a lot of work to catch up to Diablo 3. It has plenty of time though.

36 : Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War - PC - 7/1/23
Bought this on Steam sale, even thought I own it on battle net. I just don't want to use battle net for anything other than Blizzard games, and I really do prefer all of the features that Steam has.
Cold War is a fantastic Call of Duty. So much better than the trash that is MW2. Maybe MW2's multiplayer is great, but the campaign was trash.
I would love for Raven to make another game like this again. Maybe they could do a game based after Cold War. Who knows, maybe that's what we're getting this year. Treyarch/Raven are on deck again.

37 : Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus - PC - 7/4/23
Still love this game. I did the Wyatt timeline again.
It looks good, but it feels like the game is becoming more and more filled with bugs. I had a freeze and got the annoying out of driver memory error again. Movement can be buggy as well. But it still plays well enough that I have no major complaints.

38 : World of Warcraft Dragonflight - PC - 7/8/23
Got my hunter up to level 70. I didn't have much interest in my hunter. He has been almost every other horde race possible, but I didn't like him as any of those races. I didn't want to go back to the original orc look, so I went blood elf. I stayed away from making a blood elf hunter because a good friend played that before. But I think my hunter looks different enough for it to be ok.
Leveling was pretty straight forward. I didn't run into any brick walls like I did with my death knight (which is why my death knight is not 70).

39 : Wolfenstein The Old Blood - PC - 7/9/23
Think I finished this in under 3 hours. Was able to stealth way more than previous times through the game. Just a better memory, and accuracy with a mouse definitely helps.

40 : Wolfenstein The New Order - PC - 7/13/23
I haven't played through this one in years, so it's overdue.
New Order is a game (sort of like TEW2) that gets better and better as you get further into the game. By the end I remembered why I had it so high in my last gen ranking.
New Colossus and Old Blood are both great Wolfenstein titles. They fit very well with the other Wolfenstein titles. New Order stands out because it's a great modern game, not just a great Wolfenstein.

41 : World of Warcraft Dragonflight - PC - 7/15/23
Death Knight to level 70.
It was all smooth sailing to I hit 67 and it seemed like my character couldn't punch their way out of a paper bag and their attacks were frosty wet noodles. My DK probably died more from 67 to 70 than it had in every previous level to this point. Which makes some sense after looking at the current DPS list (frost DK is dead last). Just glad to get this out of the way so I have an alliance tank for Hallow's Eve runs.

42 : Cyberpunk 2077 - PC - 7/22/23
Corpo play through. Aldecados ending (my favorite).
I really liked the beginning of this. The interaction with Jackie was so different from the others. The rest of the game was largely the same. By and large using the "background" response changes very little in the game. The only real change is the beginning of the game.
So after playing all of the backgrounds (some numerous times), which one do I like the best? The street kid. Because street kid V is the closest to Jackie. And because I related most with street kid V.
I'll probably start a new save file for the pre-patch and expansion. More likely than not I'll pick the street kid background.

43 : Resident Evil 2 Remake - PC - 7/30/23
Didn't play a lot of new games this month. Bought a lot during the Steam sale, but nothing really stuck with me. I should be a little more careful about what I buy. Not because I'm short of money but because I don't like many games.
So that's what I'm sticking to my favorites, like RE2 remake. Claire A play through. Haven't played a lot of this this year. Probably because RE4 remake came out (which I'm now playing again).
Now that I've had more time since the RE4 remake launch, I think I'm now clear to say that I like RE2 remake more. Both are phenomenal, I just prefer the shorter game. I like the more simple gameplay as well.

44 : Resident Evil 4 Remake - PC - 8/7/23
It's much more easy for me to blow through RE2 remake compared to this game, but I'm always so glad to finish this game. Both the original and remake are masterpieces.
I'm considering getting Baldur's Gate 3 for my next game. I've never really been able to get into CRPGs in the past, but who knows.

45 : World of Warcraft Dragonflight - PC - 8/17/23
My paladin. My main. Level 70 once again.
I think that my paladin will always be my favorite. He has been since Burning Crusade. He has by far my most played hours. He has more played hours than my number 2-20 games combined.
I've overall liked the leveling experience in Dragonflight. I just haven't enjoyed the game all that much at level 70.

46 : Panzer Dragoon Remake - PC - 8/20/23
For someone that says they don't like dragonriding, I sure play a lot of games that involve dragon riding.
I don't remember if I played this with a keyboard and mouse last time, but on controller it was harder than I expected... until I figured out how to play the game. The secret is pressing the game rapid fire like you would with a saturn controller, with your index finger instead of thumb. Figured that out right at the end and thrashed the final boss.
Lot of firsts with this one. First game I've finished on my small form factor PC, and first game I've finished with an xbox series controller over bluetooth. I didn't experience the performance issues or disconnect issues that I had with previous controllers and previous bluetooth adapters. Who knows, maybe this match will actually work.

47 : Dead Space Remake - PC - 8/29/23
Recently purchased Baldur's Gate 3 and Armored Core 6, so naturally I ignore those games and play something that I actually want to play. Those are great games, but maybe not the games I want to play right now. I was also able to finish the game in under 8 hours. Which is to be expected in NG++ I guess.
I really like this game. Technical warts and all. Great atmosphere and sound. Looks incredible. It's a remake, but it's just as good as the original. Maybe better because it works better on newer hardware.
At this particular moment, Dead Space Remake is my personal game of the year. That very well might change with the releases of Phantom Liberty, Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2 but for now... Dead Space is my favorite.

48 : The Last of Us Part 1 - PC - 9/4/23
So it has been a little over 4 months since the PC port of TLOU Part was released. So, how is it doing now? It's better. Not completely fixed, but it's better.
Some of the indoor sections aren't properly fixed. They still have a ton of frame drops and stutter. The hospital shootout in particular. But it is better. Almost good enough to replace the remaster on my playlist of games. Maybe next year.
I still enjoy the fuck out of this game. Even on playthrough god knows what. Even 10+ years later. It's still a great story. Great characters. Great music. Great audio. It's still a masterpiece.

49 : Starfield - PC - 9/11/23
Well this is a first for me. I finished a Bethesda title, and I actually enjoyed it. I played the main story almost exclusively and finished a little under 16 hours (which is actually a little longer than the normal games that I play). Playing it as a fairly linear campaign worked out better than I expected. I didn't experience most of what Bethesda fans would normally do in these games, but I also would have lost interest quickly if I did.
Well worth the one month of game pass and I'll pick it up on Steam at some point to play through the game more thoroughly.

50 : The Room - PC - 9/16/23
This is a series that my wife is into that I've always been curious. It's a beautiful game with some really great puzzles to it. I'll definitely check out the second game at some point.

51 : Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways - PC - 9/24/23
Damn, I did not expect this to be so good. It's Resident Evil 4, but with the pace and speed of RE2r/RE3r that I prefer. It's just great. Probably my favorite surprise of the year.

52 : Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty - PC - 9/26/23
I can't remember the last time I've played 20 hours in such a short period of time, but Steam doesn't lie. If an expansion is allowed as a possible GOTY, then this is my GOTY. This is right up there with Blood and Wine as CDPR's best work.
I think I'll stick with the ending I received. I watched the others on youtube and I think I made the right choices for what I'd want to do. So now that they're all out, I'll say that The Star is my favorite ending.
The already gorgeous game is even better looking in the 2.0 update, and the characters introduced in Phantom Liberty are just stunning. The expansion sets a new bar for graphics on PC and console.
So surprisingly I took my corpo into the expansion. Not my overpowered max characters and not my new character I started a week ago. My corpo who wasn't so invested in netrunning. I most likely the changes in 2.0, but I can't play my netrunner characters like I did in the older patch. But I loved playing as an Edgerunning Samurai. That was awesome.

53 : The Evil Within - PC - 10/6/23
Ahhhhh it's spooky season again! Time to break out the classics, starting off with The Evil Within.
Finished the game in under 8 hours this time around. I think my last time was just around 11, so a good improvement. Obviously I can go a lot faster, but I am actively collecting green gel at this point. I'm almost at 3 million. Which is more than 3 times the amount that one would need to get ALL of the upgrades in the game. So that's fun.
Graphics are maybe showing their age here and there. There were some large upgrades in graphics over the last year, after cross gen finally started to go.
Not sure whether or not we'll see another TEW game again to be honest. Rumor has it that the next Tango title is Ghostwire Tokyo 2. Ah well. Onto the next game.

54 : The Evil Within 2 - PC - 10/11/23
Sometimes I don't feel like doing these games in a row and sometimes I do. I really enjoyed this playthrough for some reason. Even with all of the crashes of my AM5 system, I still got through it (partially because I abandoned my AM5 system).
This really is a series that I enjoy a lot. I'm already looking forward to my next playthroughs in 2024.

55 : Resident Evil 4 - PC - 10/17/23
Yep, the original. I'm really not sure which I like better of the two. It's the same story, for the most part, but very different games. I like the Krauser encounters more in the remake. The final boss is a toss up. Salazar I prefer in the original.
I like both games. One doesn't replace the other for me.

56 : Spider-Man 2 - PS5 - 10/24/23
Just a top notch game from beginning to end. My game of the year, with only Alan Wake 2 remaining as a contender.
Coming from the PC versions of Spider-Man and Miles Morales, there really wasn't a jump in graphics. Honestly I think the PC versions of the game look better than Spider-Man 2 on performance mode. It's still a great looking game, but the hardware can only do so much.
Sound and music were both great. Great voice acting all around.
Story and storytelling were both fantastic. It had me interested from the first scene to the last.
I left some of the game unfinished because I want something to do on the inevitable PC port.
I can't wait to see what Insomniac does with the series next.

57 : Alan Wake 2 - PC - 10/31/23
It still blows my mind that this game even exists. For a decade I never would have guessed that the game would actually be made. Yet here we are. The game was made and it is fantastic.
Personally I prefer the simpler, faster, combat of the first game. But everything else? Everything else was done better in the second game.
This game makes FULL use of my Ryzen 7500f/RTX 4070 system. This and Phantom Liberty are undoubtedly the two best looking games on the market. Remedy and CDPR being PC developers primarily really shows.
Sound was excellent. Not class leading (that's still TLOU2), but still excellent.
I don't want to get into the acting and voice acting in the game because I don't want to spoil anything. Suffice to say it's all great.
So we got three amazing survival horror games this year. For my GOTY ranking (not including Phantom Liberty), I would probably go Spider-Man 2>Alan Wake 2>Dead Space Remake>RE4/Separate ways. And I still have around a dozen games that I haven't gotten to yet, plus MW3 and Avatar that have yet to be released. Not really GOTY candidates, but could be some fun.
What a great year for gaming.

58 : A Plague Tale: Innocence - PC - 11/5/23
So you see, that's where the trouble began.

A Plague Tale: Innocence Ending Credits Soundrack

Composer : Olivier DeriviereGame by :Asobo Studio Published by : Focus Home Interactive

youtu.be

That soundtrack.
That damn soundtrack.
It's always just a matter of time before I have to get back to A Plague Tale. That soundtrack gets me like a moth to a flame.
The game is still killer. I have most of what I think is my route at this point. Hopefully I remember it for next time (probably a year from now). The final boss isn't super hard (well it is compared to the rest of the game), but it's a pattern that is not forgiving.
I was debating holding off on my replays for the rest of the year, but I genuinely enjoy replaying my favorites and this is a good time to replay them. Not sure if Requiem is in the cards. That ending was incredibly sad.

59 : Uncharted Lost Legacy - PC - 11/6/23
One of my favorites. I can't believe that it has been 6 years since this game came out. I still really want to play more Uncharted. Even if it's not made by the main team (this game was not made by the main team).

60 : The Last of Us Part 2 - PS5 - 11/16/23
I finally saved Anthony from his damn Rattler buddies. I hope he's out there, enjoying his infected life in the wild.
This is my 16th time through the game. Never thought that I'd still enjoy the game, this many times through. But here we are. If anyone ever stumbles on this post and wonders how someone can beat a brutal story like this so many times... well it's simple. I skip some of the earlier cutscenes in the game. I haven't watched those since the first or second play through. Doubt I'll ever watch them again to be honest.
Hopefully I have a better reason to replay this again next year. Maybe a PC version? Some sort of remaster for PS5? Either would be nice.

61 : World of Warcraft Dragonflight - PC - 11/19/23
Level 70 warrior (the OG).
I've really been enjoying Dragonflight with the newest pathfinder patch. Pathfinder was basically the first thing I did when the servers came up. It's nice to just fly normally again. Not stuck to a few dragonriding mounts that I need to babysit to get around.
After doing all the story quests in the first week I wanted to keep playing, but not my usual demon hunter. So I broke out my oldest character of all, my warrior. Now I've leveled as prot in the past, and I've leveled as arms, but I never leveled as fury. It was soooo much fun leveling as fury. Maybe the damage isn't the greatest, but an old orc dual wielding 2 handed axes looks amazing in motion. This is what I imagined when I thought of an orc warrior.

62 : Gears of War 2 - XSX - 11/24/23
Strangely this was not just an old save. I started it a few days ago and finished today. I just really wanted to play Gears 2 for some reason.
Gears 2 is probably the best in the series. More polished than Gears 1. Better story than Gears 3.
Maybe the next time I play these games (yet again) it will finally be on some sort of collection or remaster. I've been saying that for years.

63 : World of Warcraft Dragonflight - PC - 11/29/23
Level 70 rogue.
Yeah, this one was not all that enjoyable. I really miss the old combat rogue. The new specs all kind of suck. Current rogues are as squishy as cloth wearers but without the ability to attack from a distance.
I'm just glad to have this one done.

64 : Uncharted 4 - PC - 12/7/23
Well I went years without playing the second time, and now it's only been a year since my last time through the game. Pacing is still problematic, but it's starting to grow on me. I'll bump it up third place in the Uncharted series. Ahead of Uncharted and Uncharted 3. Oh! I got through the ship graveyard on my first try. I was very happy about that. I always have an issues with that one. I used my old HD598's. I must be close to 10 years with these and they're still great, especially for gaming.
So later tonight the game awards are on. Sony has a pretty light menu for the next couplefew years. Is it possible that some sort of Uncharted gets shown or announced? I guess we will find out.

65 : World of Warcraft Dragonflight - PC - 12/23/23
Level 70 Druid.
I've never played as a Balance druid, so I thought I'd give this a shot. Some good and some bad. The spec feels a little unfinished IMO.
Leveling wasn't as easy as the hunter or the paladin, but not the slog that was leveling the frost death knight.

66 : Max Payne 3 - PC - 12/25/23
Played in memory of James McCaffrey. The voice of Max Payne.

manifest73 · Jan 1, 2023

01. TIS-100 - PC - ★★★★☆
With Zachtronics announcing that they won't make any new games, i've decided to try to slowly revisit their catalog. I love that this game exists, it really is "the assembly language programming game you never asked for!"

02. Final Fantasy VII Remake - PS4 - unscored
Nothing really wrong with this game, but it didn't hold my attention, bounced off this in chapter 8. Tempted to replay the original and come back to this (it's been over 20 years). The one complaint I do have about this game is that whoever designed the model for Tifa needs to go back to school and take a basic human anatomy course - I suppose they are being "faithful" to the original game, but they changed enough in the remake that there is no reason they couldn't have changed this too.

03. NGU IDLE - PC - unscored
First time i've committed to an idle game. Started on this one a bit over 2 years ago, and Steam says I spent 17k hours in game. I did enjoy my time with the game, it was kind of like a pet that I needed to check in on once or twice a day, but I think I finally sort of understand people who play a game for thousands of hours and then leave a negative review. Dumb game with humor so juvenile to be off putting, but all the same i'm going to miss it.

hersheyfan · Jan 1, 2023

52 games 1 year... year 9!

Steam/PSN/XBL cards:

2015: 111 games completed (GAF) - List
2016: 73 games completed (GAF) - List
2017: 55 games completed (Era) - List
2018: 75 games completed (Era) - List
2019: 87 games completed (Era) - List
2020: 95 games completed (Era) - List
2021: 138 games completed (MC/Era) - Metacouncil / Resetera
2022: 62 games completed (MC/Era) - Metacouncil / Resetera

2023: 54 games completed as of 12/26/2023 - also on Metacouncil

Side Objectives:
Xbox: Hit 200,000 GS - Done!
PlayStation: Beat ten games on PS5
Nintendo: Beat Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Steam: Beat ten games while playing on Steam Deck

Currently Playing:
NSW: Super Mario Wonder
Steam: Etrian Odyssey 1 HD
PS4/PS5:
Xbox Series X/XGP PC: Arcade Spirits 2, Persona 5 Royal, DJMax Respect V
PSV: N/A
3DS: Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

1/1/23:
1. Arcade Spirits (XSX), 6 hours, 57 minutes. Beat game 1.5 times, saw two of the character endings. GS 400/1000
1/2/23:
2. Armored Lab Force Vulvehicles (Steam), 66 minutes. Beat game with no deaths, analog mode. (No achievements)
1/5/23:
3. Aperture Desk Job (Steam Deck), 0.8 hours. Beat game
1/6/23:
4. LoveChoice (XSX), 1 hour 6 minutes. Beat game 100% (1000/1000)
1/17/23:
5. Demon Slayer -Kimetsu No Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles (XSX), 9 hours 46 minutes. Beat story mode and most side objectives, cleared 5 characters in training mode before tapping out. 765/1000
1/29/23:
6. Hi-Fi Rush (XSX), 15 hours 36 minutes.
Beat game on normal, cleaned up a few post game achievements, beat first two SPECTRA missions. 360/1000
2/25/23:
7. Wanted: Dead (XSX), 10 hours 8 minutes. Beat game on Normal, 510/1000
8. Graze Counter GM (XSX), 3 hours 41 minutes. Beat game with all characters (1CC), almost beat game without dying (ALMOST). Beat all levels in mission except mission 15
3/11/23:
9. The Gallery (XSX), 6 hours 4 minutes. Beat both stories, multiple endings. 1000/1000
10. Crash Bandicoot 4: Its About Time (XSX), 19 hours 43 minutes. Beat game (all Timelines completed), 545/1000.
3/12/23:
11. Saints Row 2022 (XSX), 21 hours 48 minutes. Beat game, 335/1000.
3/13/23:
12. Like A Dragon: Ishin (Steam), 37 hours 44 minutes. Beat game, 70+% of substories completed. 31/56 achievements.
3/31/23:
13. Resident Evil 4 Remake (Steam), 23 hours. Beat game on Standard, halfway through Professional playthrough (NG+).
4/2/23:
14. Gunsuit Guardians (Steam, Early Access), 6 hours. Beat game around 8x (roguelike), 100% achievements.
4/4/23:
15. Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (XSX), around 3 1/2 hours. Beat game, 1000/1000 GS.
4/16/23:
16. Iwaihime (Steam Deck), 10.9 hours
Beat game, and post game side story. 12/12 achievements.
4/19/23:
17. The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (Steam Deck), 4.3 hours
Beat game for the first time, itching to play through at least one more time. 14/89 achievements.
4/22/23:
18. Ghostwire Tokyo (XSX), 16 hours 28 minutes.
Beat game, 420/1180.
19. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (XSX), 4 hours 19 minutes
Beat all levels (not 100%)
5/21/23
20. Replica (XSX), 1 hour 38 minutes
Beat game, 4 endings. 800/1000
5/28/23
21. Mia & The Dragon Princess (XSX), 3 hours 28 minutes
Saw all endings/100%. 1000/1000
6/12/23
22. King of the Arcade (XSX), 54 minutes.
Beat story mode the regular way and the alternate way, 1000/1000.
6/13/23
23. Twelve Minutes (XSX), 2 hours 58 minutes.
Beat game. 1000/1000
6/18/23
24. Diablo IV (XSX), 63 hours 15 minutes
Beat main campaign solo, carried to WT4 with friends. Will come back when Seasons launches.
6/19/23
25. "Wizard Game" (XSX), 40 hours 35 minutes
Beat campaign and some side stuff. 370/1000.
6/26/23
26. The Legend of Tianding (XSX), 5 hours 26 minutes. Beat game plus some side quests. 550/1000.
6/27/23
27. The Kids We Were (Steam), 10.9 hours. Beat game (100% achievements).
7/1/23
28. LOUD: My Road to Fame (XSX), 4 hrs 36 min.
Beat game and DLC on Chillin' difficulty. Had a really good time! 370/1195.
7/2/23
29. The Gunk (XSX), 5 hrs 30 min. Beat game plus some side stuff, 725/1000.
7/9/23
30. Forged in Shadow Torch (XSX), 23 hours 30 minutes. Did everything. What a game! 1000/1000.
31. The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog (Steam), 101 minutes. Beat game.
8/15/23
32. Stray Gods (XSX), 12hrs 4mins. Beat game once (Apollo route).
9/17/23
33. The Isle Tide Hotel (XSX), 1hr 51 mins. Beat game once (135/1000). Never again!
34. Shark! Shark! (XSX), 1hr 9 mins. Beat SP campaign (Voyage Mode), 800/1000.
10/8/2023
35. Starfield (XSX/W11PC), 85 hours 59 minutes. Beat campaign and all major questlines, 610/1000.
10/15/23
36. Truth (XSX), 2hrs 13 minutes
Beat game once, chose Sam to win. 500/1000.
10/21/83
37. Halo 2 (XSX), time unknown - part of MCC
Beat campaign on co-op with a friend. On to Halo 3!
10/31/23
38. Super Mario Wonder (NSW), around 15 hours
Beat game 100% (all seeds, coins, flags, badges, RNG doodads)
39. Call of Duty Vanguard (XSX), around 8 hours
Beat campaign, 200/1000
11/5/23
40. Exoprimal (XSX), 23 hours 39 mins
Cleared 100% of the grid, beat campaign. 550/1000
41. Little Noah: Scion of Paradise (XSX), 7 hours 53 minutes
Beat campaign/rolled credits after 9 runs total! 425/1000.
42. Vegas Tales (XSX), 2 hours 22 minutes
Beat 4 of 5 routes/endings, 900/1000
43. Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (XSX), 29 hours 42 minutes
Beat game with most side activities done, 815/1000.
12/10/23
44. Crimson Clover World EXplosion (Steam), 2.5 hours
Beat game
45. Robocop: Rogue City (Steam), 17 hours
Beat game, 23/27 achievements
46. Elevator Action S-Tribute (XSX), 1 hour 12 mins
Beat game as Edie, played some OG Elevator Action for achievements (700/1000)
47. Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery (XSX), 3 hours 20 minutes
Beat all three games, 1000/1000
48. En Garde (Steam), 4.7 hours
Beat game, 12/30 achievements
49. Akai Katana Shin (XSX), 33 minutes
Beat game with the Type 2 Shakevolt, 225/1000.
50. Sifu (XSX), 3 hours 16 mins
Beat game (26 years old). 305/1720.
51. Dordogne (XSX), 5 hours 16 mins
Beat game, 220/1000.
52. Grim Fandango Remastered (XSX), 6 hours 32 minutes
Beat game, 1000/1000.

*** 52 Games Complete! 12/24/2023 ***

53. Penny Arcade's On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 (Steam), 5.8 hours - 12/26/23
Beat game (no Steam achievements)
54. Rolling Gunner (Steam), 32 minutes - 12/26/23
Beat game, 16/43 achievements

Zaimokuza · Jan 1, 2023

2021: 55 games
2022: 52 games

This year I'll try to write something about every game I finish.

1. Danganronpa 3: Killing Harmony. Oh, NOW I get why they made Raincode. Jokes aside, good game with a couple of really good cases and a couple of excessively stretched out ones. I'm not sure I really like the ending, or at least how it was delivered, but I still liked the game as a whole

2. Firewatch. Fun, simple and good looking. The ending is bittersweet but the resolution of the main mystery doesn't work that well imho. The gameplay is not great, the limited movement set makes long treks kind of painful

3. Ape Out. Wow, i wish every indie was like this. Something that couldn't exist in the AAA space, creative but focused and with lots of personality. I found the ape movement to be questionable at times, but that's the only gripe I have with this fantastic game

4. Resident Evil 7. Great game, I wish more companies made games like this: short, linear AAA games without levels or junk collecting. When the horror part works it's really spooky but most of the time the game tries too hard and the effect is just some mild annoyance (for example in the 2nd floor of the old house).

5. Needy Streamer Overdose. It's nice, but the novelty wears off quickly. I wanted to get all achievements but I realized I just can't be bothered, so here it is, finished

6. Not A Hero. RE7 but with a satisfying combat system.

7. End of Zoe. Probably the stupidest plot ever written. In the final boss fight the combat system falls apart completely

8. Batman Arkham City. A great game, but a game clearly old. The combat feels too "magnetic", it never feels like Batman is doing what I tell him to do but only what triggers a scripted event. The plot is ridiculous, but whatever.

9. Batman Arkham Knight. This game looks amazing. It may be the night lights, the incredible art direction or the great character models, but I wouldn't complain if this was the ultimate level of videogame graphics. The only bad thing, somehow, is Bruce Wayne's face, which looks terrible. The gameplay feels worse than Arkham City's, often (like to trigger the ending cutscene) I stand in the place I'm meant to be but the game doesn't give me the prompt to "press space" to continue or doesn't spawn the next thing I'm supposed to do

10. Umineko When They Cry - Question Arcs. The game is good but, since it's a mistery, it cannot be fully judged until I read the proper resolution. Its main problem (and what a problem it is!) is that it really likes to stretch out some parts that have already said everything there was to say about them. Sometimes you have predicted what you are going to read for the next 20 minutes and the prose is not nearly good enough to keep you engrossed. Example: a certain scene in a certain hidden grass in episode 4.

11. Grand Theft Auto V. Probably one of the biggest game I still had to play. It looks and plays great, the radio stations sound amazing and the sheer scope of the game really sells you on its world. The story is unexpectedly good, I'd say it's way above average for a videogame, despite the ending taking a shortcut to cut all loose ends. The gunplay is probably the worst part of the game, but it's immersed in so many interesting things that you almost forget about it

12. Gal*Gun: Double Peace. Stupid, fun.

13. Spirit Hunter: Death Mark. Weirdly specific condition for the good end and bad checkpoints to retry in case of failure. The story wasn't bad but it wasn't brilliant either. The movement is really slow.

14. Dusk Diver. I admit I expected a bit more from this game. The combat is dull, it's just button mashing and the enemies barely attack you, so much so that I've never upgraded my HP stat and never felt I was in danger

15. Braid. Well, wow. This game is equally amazing and frustrating, but it's impossible to remove the frustrating part without removing its brilliance

16. Wonderful Everyday Down the Rabbit-Hole. Any comment about it is probably bannable. It's great though, now I wanna read Wittgenstein

17. The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. A nice little game with a lot of weird unskippable moments in the vn scenes where you just have to wait 5 or more seconds before being able to read the next line

18. Stella Glow. What can i say, I like SRPGs and generic anime plots. This game's major drawback is how incredibly SLOW every action is, turns feel endless

19. Dragon Quest XI S. Man, this game just did not want to end. It has a really cozy feeling of adventure, I get why nearly every other piece of Japanese media wants to be Dragon Quest. The story beats in the second half get silly and the repeated areas are a bit cheap, but the game is all around great.

20. Saikoroshi is exceptionally good. Short, fresh and impactuful. I wish the other chapters were this good

21. Bayonetta 3. Bayonetta's gameplay is excellent as always and Jeanne's sections and the Kaiju fights are plenty of fun. It's a shame Viola sucks and the camera is terrible.

22. The Vagrant. The map design gets confusing in the end and it's never great, the combat system is very basic and relies on unlockable abilities to do the most basic things, the italian translation is bad and the story doesn't deliver. Underwhelming

23. Ravenous Devils. I only bought this game because of its concept, but I ended up enjoying it more than expected. I only wish actions had no timers when the shop is closed since waiting when you have no customers serves no purpose.

24. Iron Lung. A good scare, even though some tension was gone by the end of the game because I realized the tenth spot I hadn't seen was literally on the other side of the map

25. Flower is at its best when it's doing its own thing and you are just watching the pretty petals in the wind, otherwise the camera control is awful and the objective not always clear (or visible)

26. Ghostrunner is conceptually great, but I can't count the number of times I've died because I got stuck somewhere, went behind a platform without meaning it or kept running on a wall when I wanted to jump off in slow motion.

27. The Witcher 3. Amazing game, it still looks amazing by the way after all the recent patches. In the end I made all the wrong decisions in the game, but I'm still really happy with it.

28. Neon White. Great game, I hadn't done every challenge in a game in a while. The writing's terrible, but whatever

29. Cadence of Hyrule. A better, easier and less punishing Crypt of the Necrodancer. The randomizing makes for some pretty unfair situations and the end phases where you are stuck in small spaces with a lot of enemies aren't pretty.

30. Planetarian. A good vn. I liked it and it's not drawn out like a lot of them are (*cough cough* Umineko *cough cough*) but still manages to put together a well put story.

31. Ghost Trick. Adorable, concise and to the point. All the twists more or less work and the game is very creative, the only problem is that the game is still in 4:3, they could've put a little bit more effort to make the background 16:9.

32. Harmonia. Not as good as Planetarian but charming nonetheless.

33. Hearts of Stone. The expansion got better as I continued, the villa in particular is great, great writing as always

34. Blood and Wine. I echo what I read on the internet throughout the years: this could've been a standalone full price game and I wouldn't have complained. Amazing.

35. Mafia DE. A really nice game without any bloat. The big downside is that there is a lot of driving in this game but the driving experience simply isn't good enough

36. Devil May Cry 5. Amazing game, but some boss hitboxes are really bullshit. The character models look amazing but I don't think the "nondescript demonic matter" texture works on background, they are samey and boring. V is the most fun to play, the one I made combos most easily while I didn't like Nero at all.

37. Ikaruga. The game itself is amazing but I'm unable to complete outside free mode and the translation sucks. It also desperately needs a quick retry button.

38. Mushihimesama. The other purchase of the Steam shoot em up sale. I'm slightly less bad at this one, the last stages in Ikaruga seem genuinely impossible while this one is hard but doable.

39. GTA IV. The game itself is good (it's gta after all) but the terrible driving, helicopters missions in the last part and bad controls (I played with the keyboard for shooting sections and the controller for driving) really hurt it. I don't get why the story is so incensed: it has its moments but it's a typical revenge story.

40. Lost and Damned. The worst thing about GTA4 is the driving so... they made a DLC about driving. I liked the story, the relationship between Johnny and Ashley worked pretty well imho.

41. The Ballad of Gay Tony. This was the most fun I've had in GTAIV by a wide margin. The Yusuf missions are very unique, which helps a lot since most missions are just "drive there shoot people"

42. Abzu. Less than two hours long and I still wished it was shorter. The art is nice though

43. Left for Dead 2. I played through the entirety of it with a group of friends online once a week. It was by far the most fun I've had online

44. Half-Life. The game was obviously exceptional when it came out, but I played it this year and I must say that the movement is so incredibly bad... it's slippery, imprecise and it's the number one reason of my deaths. And Xen is not great.

45. Half-Life: Blue Shift. Slightly worse than the main game at everything, opening included

46. Half-Life 2. It's amazing how this game holds up so well still. The ending is a bit of a disappointment, but whatever.

47. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. Not much to judge.

48. Half-Life 2: Episode One. As good as the main campaign, but I'd like to speak a few words to the explosives obsessed level designer. I also don't particularly like the sections at the ending of the main game and the beginning of this one where you can only fight with the gravity gun.

49. Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Still great. Surprisingly, I don't have much else to say. The fight against the striders was a chore though.

50. Escape the Backrooms. The proof that anything can be fun in 4 player online co-op

51. Cruelty Squad. Conceptually I find what it does really interesting, but it's the first game to ever give me headaches and nausea. i only did the fake ending

52. Deathloop. the hours are wrong because I can't suspend mid mission, but I absolutely loved this game. It's really easy to get overpowered and Julianna literally never ruined a day for me, she killed me a couple of times because I was being an idiot but the game is absolutely worth it.

Ganepark32 · Jan 1, 2023

Reserved.

First time officially. Had meant to join in last year but forgot to do so and part way through the year when I remembered I didn't think I could just jump in. Managed the 52 last year (beat 67 games) though.

1. Lil Gator Game (NS) - 3 Hours - 8/10 - Jan. 1st
2. Mirror's Edge (XSS) - Under 4 Hours - 8.5/10 - Jan. 1st
3. Lunistice (NS) - ~4 Hours - 7.5/10 - Jan. 4th
4. Melatonin (NS) - 2 Hours - 7/10 - Jan. 5th
5. Tetris Effect Connected - Journey Mode Normal Difficulty Clear (XSS) - 2 Hours - 9/10 - Jan. 7th
6. A Short Hike (PS5) - 2 Hours - 9/10 - Jan. 7th
7. Where The Snow Settles (XSS) - 53 Minutes - 3/10 - Jan. 8th
8. Child of Eden (XSS) - 2 Hours - 6/10 - Jan. 11th
9. Trash Quest (NS) - 3 Hours - 7.5/10 - Jan. 11th
10. Half Life 2: Episode 1 (XSS) - 2 Hours 45 Minutes - 9/10 - Jan. 12th
11. Half Life 2: Episode 2 (XSS) - 3 Hours 43 Minutes - 7/10 - Jan. 14th
12. God of War Ragnarök (PS5) - 39 Hours - 8/10 - Jan. 15th
13. Tinykin (PS5, Platinumed) - 6 Hours - 9/10 - Jan. 16th
14. Titanfall 2 (XSS) - 9/10 - Jan. 17th
15. Sega Mega Drive Classics: Sonic The Hedgehog (PS5) - 2 Hours 30 Minutes - 7/10 - Jan. 21st
16. Far: Changing Tides (XSS) - 9/10 - Jan. 25th
17. Wavetale (XSS) - 3 Hours 30 Minutes - 5/10 - Jan. 26th
18. Little Orpheus (XSS) - 6/10 - Jan. 27th
19. Vengeful Guardian Moonrider (PS5) - 7/10 - Jan. 28th
20. Rayman Legends (XSS) - 9/10 - Jan. 28th

21. Deliver Us Mars (PS5) - 6/10 - Feb. 6th
22. Super Mario Land 2: The Golden Coins (NS) - 7/10 - Feb. 9th
23. Somerville (XSS) - 5/10 - Feb. 12th
24. Powerwash Simulator (PS5) - 8/10 - Feb. 12th
25. Seasons: A Letter to the Future (PS5) - 7/10 - Feb. 19th
26. Rez Infinite (PS5) - 10/10 - Feb. 22nd
27. Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition (XSS) - 6/10 - Feb. 22nd
28. Macbat 64 (NS) - 6/10 - Feb. 22nd
29. Vampire Survivors (XSS) - 8/10 - Feb. 25th

30. Haiku, The Robot (NS) - Mar. 8th
31. Destiny 2: Lightfall Campaign (PS5) - Mar. 11th
32. The Spirit and the Mouse (NS) - Mar. 12th
33. The Forest Cathedral (XSS) - Mar. 16th
34. Demon Turf: Neon Splash (NS) - Mar. 23rd
35. Storyteller (NS) - Mar.. 24th
36. Tchia (PS5) - Mar. 26th

37. Citizen Sleeper (PS5) - Apr. 3rd
38. Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure Expansion (XSS) - Apr. 6th
39. DREDGE (PS5) - Apr. 7th
40. Pineapple on Pizza (PC) - Apr. 9th
41. Birth (PC) - Apr. 10th
42. Terra Nil (Android) - Apr. 10th
43. Time Loader (PS5) - Apr. 16th
44. Landlord of the Woods (PC) - Apr. 16th
45. Riverbond (NS) - Apr. 17th
46. Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS5) - Apr. 18th
47. Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores (PS5) - Apr. 24th
48. Elechead (XSS) - Apr. 26th

49. Whimsy (PC) - May 2nd
50. Bramble: The Mountain King (XSS) - May 5th
51. Ravenlok (XSS) - May 7th
52. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (PS5) - May 10th
53. Mr. Sun's Hatbox (XSS) - May 14th
54. Pizza Tower (PC) - May 30th
55. Planet of Lana (XSS) - May 31st

56. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun (XSS) - June 6th
57. Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer (XSS) - June 13th
58. Sludge Life (NS) - June 16th
59. Smushi Come Home (NS) - June 16th
60. Grapple Dog (XSS) - June 26th
61. White Shadows (XSS) - June 28th

62. Sheepo (XSS) - July 2nd
63. Rise of Fox Hero (PS5) - July 2nd
64. Scarf (XSS) - July 7th
65. High on Life (XSS) - July 10th
66. Assemble with Care (PC) - July 16th
67. Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals (PS5) - July 21st
68. Viewfinder (PS5) - July 23rd
69. Hoa (XSS) - July 24th
70. Dordogne (XSS) - July 25th
71. Birth (XSS) - July 28th

72. Venba (XSS) - August 2nd
73. Rytmos (Android) - August 2nd
74. Portal (XSS) - August 5th
75. Human Fall Flat (PS5) - August 8th
76. Psychonauts 2 (PS5) - August 8th
77. Stray (XSS) - August 20th
78. Depanneur Nocturne (PC/Steam) - August 23rd
79. A Little To The Left (NS) - August 28th

80. The Shape of Things (NS) - September 4th
81. Starfield (XSS) - September 17th
82. Gato Roboto (NS) - September 18th
83. Gunbrella (NS) - September 30th

84. Cocoon (XSS) - October 3rd
85. A Tiny Sticker Tale (NS) - October 5th
86. El Paso, Elsewhere (XSS) - October 14th
87. Underground Blossom (Android) - October 15th
88. South Scrimshaw, Part One (PC) - October 15th
89. Pizza Possum (XSS) - October 17th
90. Pumpkin Jack (XSS) - October 19th
91. Mail Time (PS5) - October 20th

92. Frog Detective 1 (XSS) - November 3rd
93. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (NS) - November 3rd
94. Frog Detective 2 (XSS) - November 4th
95. Frog Detective 3 (XSS) - November 5th
96. Chicken Journey (NS) - November 5th
97. Jusant (XSS) - November 6th
98. Alan Wake 2 (PS5) - November 16th
99. Skator Gator 3D (XSS) - November 18th
100. Torn Away (XSS) - November 28th
101. Aperture Desk Job (PC) - November 30th

102. Cavern of Dreams (PC) - December 2nd
103. En Garde! (PC) - December 14th
104. Ex-Zodiac (PC) - December 23rd
105. Goodbye Volcano High (PS5) - December 25th
106. Halo: Reach (PC) - December 27th
107. A Highland Song (PC) - December 27th

Final Total: 107
Platform Breakdown:
Android: 3
PC/Steam Deck: 14
PS5: 26
Switch: 21
XSS: 43

Xadra · Jan 1, 2023

DONE: 52/52 games beaten.

^_____^

January, 2023 [1/52]
1 game(s)

February, 2023 [1/52]

0 game(s)

March, 2023 [4/52]
3 game(s)

Abril, 2023 [5/52]
1 game(s)

May, 2023 [10/52]
5 game(s)

June, 2023 [23/52]
13 game(s)

July, 2023 [30/52]
7 game(s)

August, 2023 [39/52]
9 game(s)

September, 2023 [50/52]
11 game(s)

October, 2023 [53/52]
3 game(s)

November, 2023 [53/52]

0 game(s)

December, 2023 [54/52]
1 game(s)

Whimsicalish · Jan 1, 2023

2020: 71 games
2021: 63 games
2022: 63 games
2023: 52

Review: 01 | Glass Masquerade 2: Temptations DLC | PC | Jan 02 | 2 h | 5/5
Review: 02 | Biomutant | PS5 | Jan 02 | 27 h | 4/5
Review: 03 | Glass Masquerade 2: Revelations DLC | PC | Jan 06 | 1 h | 4/5
Review: 04 | Glass Masquerade 2: Scaryfolks DLC | PC | Jan 07 | 1.5 h | 5/5
Review: 05 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition | PS4 | Jan 17 | 118 h | 4.5/5
Review: 06 | Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising | PC | Jan 17 | 18 h | 3/5
Review: 07 | Little Nightmares | PC | Jan 19 | 3 h | 2/5
Review: 08 | The Solitaire Conspiracy | PC | Jan 22 | 5.5 h | 3.5/5
Review: 09 | Erica | PS4 | Jan 24 | 9 h | 3.5/5
Review: 10 | Chained Echoes | PS5 | Feb 07 | 55 h | 4.5/5
Review: 11 | Pentiment | PC | Feb 20 | 21 h | 5/5
Review: 12 | Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles | Steam Deck | Feb 20 | 21.5 h | 3/5
Review: 13 | Luna's Fishing Garden | Steam Deck | Feb 23 | 3.5 h | 3/5
Review: 14 | Elsinore | Steam Deck | Feb 26 | 21.5 h | 5/5
Review: 15 | Home | Steam Deck | March 05 | 4 h | 2.5/5
Review: 16 | Ghost of a Tale | PS4 | March 06 | 15 h | 4/5
Review: 17 | What Remains of Edith Finch | PS5 | March 07 | 2.5 h | REPLAY
Review: 18 | TOEM | PS5 | March 08 | 4 h | REPLAY
Review: 19 | WoW: Dragonflight | PC | March 09 | ??? h | 4/5
Review: 20 | Chicory: A Colorful Tale | PS5 | March 12 | 18 h | 5/5
Review: 21 | Unpacking | PS5 | March 12 | 6 h | 4/5
Review: 22 | Fae Tactics | Steam Deck | April 1 | 47.5 h | 4/5
Review: 23 | Caligula Effect: Overdose | PS4 | April 16 | 43 h | 2.5/5
Review: 24 | Yakuza 0 | PC | April 30 | 65 h | 2.5/5
Review: 25 | Cube Escape: Paradox | PC | April 30 | 2.5 h | 3/5
Review: 26 | Graveyard Keeper | PS5 | May 12 | 46 h | 3/5
Review: 27 | Tchia | PS5 | May 13 | 24 h | 4/5
Review: 28 | Donut County | PS+ Streaming Steam Deck | May 15 | 3 h | 3/5
Review: 29 | Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom | PS5 | May 15 | 25 h | 2/5
Review: 30 | Final Fantasy II: Pixel Remaster | PC | May 24 | 20 h | 3/5
Review: 31 | Final Fantasy III: Pixel Remaster | PC | May 28 | 17 h | 2.5/5
Review: 32 | Final Fantasy IV: Pixel Remaster | PC | June 14 | 25 h | 2/5
Review: 33 | Black Mirror | PS5 | June 18 | 6 h | 2/5
Review: 34 | Final Fantasy V: Pixel Remaster | PC | July 6 | 45 h | 3/5
Review: 35 | PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo | PC | July 29 | 11 h | 4/5
Review: 36 | WATCH_DOGS | PS4 | Sept 9 | 51 h | 3/5
Review: 37 | Chivalry 2 | PS5 | Sept 16 | 44 h | 3/5
Review: 38 | Assemble with Care | Steam Deck | Aug 31 | 2.5 h | 4/5
Review: 39 | The Medium | PS5 | Oct 08 | 10 h | 1/5
Review: 40 | The Quarry | PS4 | Oct 15 | 27 h | 4/5
Review: 41 | Sagebrush | PS4 | Oct 21 | 2 h | 3/5
Review: 42 | Child of Light | PS4 | Oct 22 | 5 h | 4/5
Review: 43 | WATCH_DOGS 2 | PS4 | Oct 27 | 31 h | 4/5
Review: 44 | MediEvil (2019) | PS4 | Nov 12 | 15 h | 4/5
Review: 45 | Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi | PS3 | Nov 12 | 40? h | 3/5
Review: 46 | Black Death: A Tragic Dirge | PS5 | Nov 18 | 0.5 h | 2/5
Review: 47 | The Suicide of Rachel Foster | PS4 | Nov 18 | 2 h | 1/5
Review: 48 | Merrily Perrilly | PS4 | Nov 26 | 2 h | 4/5
Review: 49 | When the Past Was Around | PS4 | Nov 27 | 2 h | 4/5
Review: 50 | Overwatch 2: Season 7 | PC | Dec 05 | 15 h | 2/5
Review: 51 | Hidden Paws Mystery | PS5 | Dec 09 | 4 h | 3.5/5
Review: 52 | Disney Dreamlight Valley | PS5 | Dec 21 | 205 h | 3/5

DexterBear · Jan 1, 2023

First time going into this challenge.

Complete Games of the Year By Platform (when the list gets bigger I will put on spoiler) :

Nintendo Switch
1 - Mom Hid My Game - Less than an Hour - 04/01/2023 - 3.5/5 stars
Fun Little Game. I don't like a lot of puzzle games but this seemed fun and I wasn't wrong about. I think is a bit short since most of the levels are quite based in logic (I believe that only one is used as a skill-based level). Nonetheless, I believe this would be a good game to be used as a tech demo to show what you can do with the Nintendo Switch, since you need to use the Joy-cons in a level and another small things around the console to complete the level.

5 - Pocket Mini Golf - Less than an Hour - 31/01/2023 - 1.5/5 stars
Since it's a continue as you please game, where you are never finished I will count as finished since I passed the 50 courses twice. A fine game to when you don't have anything to do and want to make a break between games.

Mobile
2 - Mom Hid My Game 2 - Less than an Hour - 19/01/2023 - 2/5
Uninspired sequel. I don't know what to say more. The game continues short but most of the levels are based on levels from the first one. I think I will finish the trilogy but still not the best game on the series.

3 - Mom Hid My Game 3 - Less than an Hour - 21/01/2023 - 2/5
It's the same thing of the other sequel. It's uninspired even if it gets some fun things. Now onto the 4th entry/chapter of the series.

4 - Mom Hid My Game 4 - Less than an Hour - 22/01/2023 - 3/5
A bit better than the others and have some fun situations. That's it.

Currently Playing:

Nintendo Switch
Dead Cells (I don't know if I will complete this one early)

PlayStation 5
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunition
One Piece Odyssey

RodrigoRussano · Jan 1, 2023

Gonna try this year! 2023 is shaping up to be one of the best years in gaming 🔥

shadowman16 · Jan 1, 2023

Reserved. Should be able to knock out 52 games assuming Yakuza doesnt take up too much time again!

1. Turtles in Time (Arcade)
2. TMNT: Hyperstone Heist
3. TMNT: Turtles in Time (Super Nintendo)
4. TMNT Tournament Fighters (NES edition)
5. TMNT Tournament Fighters (MD edition)
6. TMNT Tournament Fighters (SNES edition)
7. Darksiders II
8. Cotton 100%
9. Panorama Cotton
10. Mega Man (Game Gear)
11. Gungrave G.O.R.E
12. Hissatsu Buraiken
13. Exed Exes
14. Yakuza Kiwami
15. Bayonetta 2
16. Vigilante
17. Grime
18. Dead Space
19. Gun.Smoke
20. Space Harrier II
21. Super Mario Land (GB)
22. A Short Hike (PS4)
23. Super Mario Land 2 (GB)
24. Joe and Mac (Snes)
25. Mega Turrican (PS4)
26. Life is Strange (PS4)
27. Turrican 2 (PS4)
28. Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations (PS4)
29. Donkey Kong Land (GB)
30. Super Turrican (PS4)
31. Shock Troopers 2nd Squad (PS4)
32. No More Heroes (Switch)
33. Dead Space (Remake, PS5)
35. Donkey Kong Land 2 (GB)
36. The Pathless (PS4)
37. Power Wash Sim (PS5)
38. Thumper (PSVR2)
39. Moss Book 1 (PSVR2)
40. Moonrider (PS5)
41. Typoon/A-Jax (PS4)
42. Vigilante (PC Engine)
43. Operation Wolf (PC Engine)
44. Chase HQ (PC Engine)
45. Neon White (PS4)
46. RGG Ishin Kiwami
47. Shock Troopers (PS4)
48. Rez Infinite (PSVR2)
49. Double Dragon II (Arcade version, PS4)
50. The Ascent (PS5)
51. OlliOlli 2 (Vita/PS4)
52. Kirby Return to Dreamland Deluxe (Switch)
53. Neo Turf Masters (PS4)
54. No More Heroes 2 (Switch)
55. Mass Effect 2 (PS4)
56. Final Fight Guy (SNES)
57. Final Fight 2 (Super Famicom)
58. Dead Island Riptide (PS4)
59. Elevator Action Returns (PS5)
60. Thunder Cross (PS4)
61. Spider-Man (GB)
62. Spider-Man 2 (Gameboy)
63. Spider-Man 3: Invasion of the Spider Slayers (GB)
64. Tchia (PS5)
65. Spider-Man Revenge of the Sinister 6 (Master System)
66. Spider-Man Vs the Kingpin (Master System)
67. Moss Book II (PSVR2)
68. Spider-Man Vs the Kingpin (Mega Drive)
69. Spider-Man and the X-Men (Gameboy)
70. Bramble (PS5)
71. Shovel Knight Dig (Steam Deck)
72. Spider-Man & X-Men (Snes)
73. Spider-Man & X-Men (Gamegear)
74. Spider-Man Vs the Kingpin (Mega CD)
75. Resident Evil 4 REmake (PS5)
76. Space Invaders Extreme (PS4)
77. Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage (Mega Drive)
78. Lethal Foes of Spider-Man (Super Famicom)
79. Spider-Man: The Animated Series (Super Nintend)
80. Spider-Man: The Animated Series (Mega Drive)
81. Pursuit Force (PS5/PSP)
82. Spider-Man & Venom: Separation Anxiety (Mega Drive)
83. Spider-Man Web of Fire (32X)
84. Arcade Archives: Mazinger Z (PS4)
85. Spider-Man: The Arcade Game (Arcade PCB)
86. Super Meat Boy (Vita)
87. Mass Effect 3 (PS4)
88. Spider-Man (Dreamcast)
89. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order (PS5)
90. Zool (PS5)
91. Horizon COTM (PSVR2)
92. Pikmin HD Remaster (Switch)
93. Sonic CD (PS5)
94. Sonic 2 (PS5)
95. Pikmin 2 HD (Switch)
96. Pikmin 3 Deluxe (Switch)
97. Exoprimal (PS5)
98. Monster Hunter Rise (PS5)
99. Sonic 3 & Knuckles (PS5)
100! Pole Position (PS5)
101. Peter Jackson's King Kong (360)
102. Need for Speed: The Run (360)
103. Sonic Frontiers (PS5)
Bonus 1. Kid Chameleon (Mega Drive/Switch Online)
104. Spider-Man (GBC)
105. Spider-Man 2: The Sinister Six (GBC)
106. Rolling Thunder (PS4)
107. Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace (GBA)
108. Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro (PS1)
109. Mudrunners (PS4)
110. American Fugitive (PS4)
111. Splatterhouse (PS4)
112. Spider-Man: The Movie: The Game (Xbox)
113. Ghost Trick (PS4)
114. Spider-Man the Movie (GBA)
115. Disney Illusion Island (Switch)
116. Mr Run and Jump (PS5)
117. Absolute Drift: Zen Edition (PS4)
118. Season (PS5)
119. River City Girls (PS5)
120. Pikmin 4 (Switch)
121. Turtles in Time Reshelled (PS3)
122. Avengers (PS5)
Bonus 2. Ex-Zodiac (Steamdeck/PC)
123. Transformers: The Movie: The Game (Xbox 360)
124. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (GBA)
125. Spider-Man 2: The Movie (GBA)
126. Serious Sam HD Remaster (PS4)
127. TMNT Ubisoft ver. (GBA)
128. Avengers War for Wakanda + all other DLC/postgame content (PS5)
129. Plague Tale (PS5)
130. Power Wash Sim - Sponge Bob DLC + Bonus stages (PS5)
131. Grapple Dog (Steam Deck)
132. Sk8ter G8tor 3D (Steam Deck)
133. Gato Roboto (Steam Deck)
134. Afterfall: Insanity (Steam Deck)
135. Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition (Steam Deck)
136. Plague Tale Requiem (PS5)
137. Doom (PS4)
138. Daymare 1998 (PS4)
139. Actraiser Renaissance (PS4)
140. Wolfenstein 3D (Steam Deck)
141. Wolfenstein 3D: The Nocturnal Missions (Steam Deck)
142. Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny (Steam Deck)
143. Tetris Effect (PSVR2)
144. Alan Wake Remastered (PS5)
145. Alan Wake DLC + American Nightmare (PS5/Steam Deck)
146. Sega Rally (GBA)
147. No More Heroes 3 (PS5)
148. Bloodwash (PS5)
149. Chuck Rock (Mega CD)
150. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 (Xbox)
151. DinoBreak (PS5)
152. Cultic Chapter 1 (Steam Deck)
153. EDF World Brothers (PS4)
154. Clawfish (Steam Deck)
155. Cocoon (PC)
156. Lonely Mountains Downhill (PS4)
157. Marvel Spider-Man 2 (PS5)
158. Sonic Superstars (PS5)
159. Call of Duty (Xbox 360)
160. Sega Rally (Arcade/Steam Deck)
161. Super Mario Wonder (Switch)
162. Somerville (PS5)
163. 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (Arcade)
164. 1942 (ZX Spectrum)
165. 1943 (ZX Spectrum)
166. Commando (ZX Spectrum)
167. Enduro Racer (Master System/Sega MKIII)
168. Ghosts n Goblins (ZX Spectrum)
169. Mega Man 2 (Evercade EXP)
170. Moon Patrol (Evercade)
171. Planet of Lana (PC)
172. TMNT (ZX Spectrum)
173. TMNT (Amstrad CPC)
174. TMNT (Amiga)
175. Mega Man X (Evercade)
176. 1942 (Evercade)
177. Ghouls n Ghosts (ZX Spectrum)
178. Goldeneye (Series X)
179. Goldeneye Remaster (Xbox 360)
180. Fantasy Zone (Sega Mark III)
181. Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Sega Mark III)
182. Alien Storm (Sega Mark III)
183. Mega Man (Evercade)
184. Secret Command (Sega MKIII)
185. SDI (Sega MKIII)
186. Maze Hunter 3D (Sega MKIII)
187. Viewfinder (PS5)
188. Call of Duty 2 (Xbox 360)
189. Quartet (Sega MKIII)
190. Fantasy Zone II (Sega MKIII)
191. Yakuza Gaiden (PS5)
192. Gargoyles (PS5)
193. Powerwash Sim Back to the Future pack (PS5)
194. Half Life (Steam Deck)
195. BZZZT (Steam Deck)
196. Shinobi Non Grata (PS4)
197. Corn Kidz 64 (Steam Deck)
198. Enchanted Portals (PS5)
198. Angry Video Game Nerd 1 (PS4)
199. Angry Video Game Nerd 2 (PS4)

200!! Pursuit Force Extreme Justice (PS5) - Absolutely bonkers arcadey racer/action sequel that somehow is even more absurd than the original. And I love it!
The game mainly retains the gameplay from the first game - a mix of point to point races, car combat, on rails shooting, and some on foot sections alongside a blistering fast pace. The weakest part is the on foot sections - limited due to the PSP's lack of a second analogue stick, so you cant move and aim at the same time and the whole thing still feels super janky. Perfectly playable, but definitely the least good bit. The racing/car action sections are amazing fun - long point to point races and you can leap from car to car, take out enemies, shoot down helicopters etc. Its got a really silly story and some insanely silly set pieces, but I love it. If something like TLOU is trying to be this serious, thoughtful plot, this is trying to be the complete opposite - a Saturday morning cartoon and OTT action movie all rolled into one.

201. Alan Wake 2 (Series X) - A sequel that I've been hoping would end up happening for years, and thankfully it did not disappoint. Quite the opposite, Remedy kicked ass in many ways - visually its astounding while also being a practically locked 60FPS on Xbox, and plot wise it was exactly what I wanted from the sequel - its a great ending, yet is left open for further content should Remedy want to dive back into Cauldron Lake!

I loved how the game is split between Alan and Saga - both have compelling plots, weave into each others plots well, and give me another opporunity to explore Bright Falls - actually this was one of my absolute favourite parts of the game... the town has an even weirder vibe than what it had back in the original game, Watery especially, and it just suited the game perfectly. The dark place was also really well handled, with Alan being able to manipulate it with light and his writing, so they could really come up with some amazing little set pieces - the whole musical portion especially is an 11/10 segment if ever there was one!

My only real issues boil down to combat. Aside the fact that you can never really run out of ammo (I ran out of storage space in the end!) kinda kills a bit of the tention, and the actual combat doesnt feel all that great. Its still better than the original (which was relentless, and after a while, really bland) but its a far cry from say... Resident Evil 2 or 4.

Hopefully we wont have to wait another decade for a sequel, or at least get more related content in the Control sequel!

202. Actraiser (SNES) - I did a run through on the remake back in September, and I mainly hated it for being a bloated POS that ruined the original game. So I thought it made sense to actually replay the original game to make sure I hadn't imagined it being far better. And no, I didnt imagine things, the original is STILL the best version of the game there is.

The game is divided into two sections - action platforming bits where you fight monsters, and an overworld element where you help people, get rid of monster spawns, gain more followers and power up for the next boss battle (more followers = more XP = more health etc.)

So while the action bits are mainly the same, its the overworld bits that are night and day and make this THE version to play.
The big difference being the pace. In the remake, its a meanderingly slow existence where you have crappy story segments interupting you every few seconds. Everything is slow (from monster spawning to town populating) and after you get rid of the spawns, you'll have enemy attacks that randomly pop up, which were fucking terrible tower defense shite.

The original though is lightning fast. Enemies spawn faster so you can use more magic and clear away trees etc. faster so the towns can flourish quicker. Once you clear all spawns up you can relax as no further enemies then spawn. And since you dont have stupid story and tower defense sections further slowing things to a crawl, you'll get through these sections super fast. So its probably only gonna take you an afternoon to clear it, while its going to take you the best part of a day to finish the remake due to the padding.

The action sections do seem to be different in one regard though - the difficulty. This game feels tougher than the remake, and I mean that in a good way. Bosses are well done for the most part and dont mess around, so you actually gotta learn patterns and figure out a strategy. In the remake spamming magic works a bit too well... Here magic is in short supply so you cant spam it, you gotta know when to use it.
Timing is also far tighter here - for example, the second main boss in the remake is a dude who shoots lightning then transforms into a werewolf mid fight. In this original version he has the same moves, but he's like twice as fast and the window to damage him is way smaller, so you have to be far more on your toes just to hit him, let alone beat him. And this pattern is basically identical for all bosses.

Later stages feel tougher as well - the ice dragon stage feels pretty darn tough due to enemy layout + the bubble ascent section is no joke.

The only part where bosses are maybe a little too tough is the final gauntlet. As was the style at the time, you'd refight past bosses before the final one, and here the main change is that they are sped up further. For something like Pinwheel or the Minotaur, this makes it hard to damage them while also evading, so I ended up choosing damage over evasion as it was easier to damage them several times while getting hit once... Not a winning formula lol. Also, as mentioned, magic is finite while I had 6ish lives so picking as choosing when to use it was paramount. The Ice Dragon absolutely was one of those moments where I needed it, sadly that was the penultimate boss so it required me getting really good at the other bosses, which took a while.

The final bosses phases were surprisingly easy to be honest... evading damage is pretty simple and your sword gains a energy beam so no need to get close.

All in all, I loved it. The far quicker pace in the overworld and difficulty in the action sections make this vastly superior to the poor remake.

203. Star Wars: Rebel Assault (Steam Deck) - Ah, nostalgia. Heck of a thing... Im actually kinda surprised this game even worked properly on the Steam Deck considering its pretty old, but right out the box it worked like a charm.

The game itself... yeah it aged. The problem is its a FMV game, and the FMV is such low res that its really hard to see where the heck to fly. That makes certain stages really difficult to navigate - so hard to know what is an obstacle and what isnt.

The shooting stages, and the controls are really sensitive. That means the smallest touch could have you flying far in one direction! Makes it hard to aim as well.
I managed to get the hang of the controls after a while, and most of the stages are pretty easy to clear - the first several are short and fairly forgiving. Its when you hit around chapter 10 that things start getting tougher - as they have you flying AND aiming at the same time - which makes something like the Probe Droid mission pretty tough especially as your also trying to figure out the route to the exit at the same time.
Sadly the second half also has some of the more boring/unfair stages:

AT AT - awesome right? This aint Rogue Squadron or even Shadows of the Empire, this is a glorified on rails segment that repeats until you basically hit all parts of the walker. It goes on far too long and gets boring real quick.

Any Tie Fighter related stage in the second half - basically if your control aint perfect your damage increases instantly and your doomed.

The trench run - despite being a cockpit stage its just so hard to aim at the tiny targets, meaning you'll take tons of damage. You basically hope you'll survive long enough to see the end...

Overall, its fine. Its definitely a product of the time and its far from the best SW game to revisit. But at the same time the nostalgia came flooding back and I did have a blast finishing it.

204. Forklift Simulator '24 (PS5) - I like sims for jobs/tasks that may seem mundane/boring... no idea why, but I fucking loved the job section in Shenmue lol. That's probably why I ended up with this game, and honestly... Shenmue did it better. As the name implies, this has you using a forklift, you ferry around items to shipping containers and earn money with each container you fill. And really that's it... Seriously.
The problem is that the game doesnt really build from here. You upgrade the warehouse a few times (my completion metric was completely upgrading the warehouse as that was really the only ongoing objective), the problem is almost all supplies are available from minute one, so aside the addition of wood logs, steel bars etc. to move (which your very rarely asked to move), what you do in hour one is the same as in hour... 20? I cant believe I kept as this game for that long, but I guess it was bizarrely relaxing? Definitely feels like the weirdest game I put the most time into this year...

205. Cybarian (PS4) - A suggestion from a friend - its a short little indie platformer that was right up my street. As with other action platformers, the goal is to take out enemies and head from left to right, while not dying (I never said it was unique!). It does have a slightly different attack mechanic for combo attacks though - you cant button bash for an attack combo, but rather you have to time your subsequent attacks just right, in order to land the second and third hits. Screw up, and your character is "stunned" for a brief moment leaving you completely open to attack. Thankfully the timing is easy to get down, so most should pick it up quick.
The game itself is fairly straight forward otherwise - enemies are pretty easy to deal with (as long as your timing is good), and as usual you have pits, spikes, and fire to watch out for as well.
As you progress through the game you'll get a couple more attacks - the most important ones being your dodge role (iframes ahoy) and the sword throw attack (ranged shot move). For most of the game I found close quarters the better choice, with some dodging thrown in to keep me safe.
The levels themselves are fairly easy, with really only a few cheap enemies popping out out of nowhere (which are hard to evade) to keep me on my toes, else its easy.
What's not so easy is how health and checkpoints work. Health costs 40 coins and is only given to you in vending machines if you have the cash. Checkpoints are only there at the beginning of a stage and before the boss. So you gotta learn each stage.

The bosses are interestingly designed, with the first being simple, and the rest getting tougher as you go - the second boss has a wide sythe attack that expects you to dodge perfectly with your roll, the third boss is a duo of enemies so you gotta have you timing just right and whits about you, and the finale is a three phase boss fight which is... actually fairly simple when you know how! (its really just its length that can wear people down).

Its a short game, but a fun one. I do wish controls were a little snappier at points as sometimes it feels like you have lag after attacking, I also wish certain obstacles had more frames of animation, as crusher thingies have few frames, and animate poorly, making them a rather annoying eyesore on the third bos.

But honestly, its a cheap game and a fun one at that. Not life changing, but pretty good all things considered.

206. Super Life of Pixel (PS4) - A cute little platformer that also sorta serves as a history lesson in terms of certain technical "quirks" for various old consoles and computers from the very beginning up until the 16 bit era.
You'll start with the older consoles/computers and the game will lack colour, lack screen scrolling, and generally try and evoke some level design from the games of the time - Atari 2600 has a level blatantly referencing Pitfall, Spectrum has at least one Jet Set Willy-ish feeling level, the Amiga has a level literally referencing Turrican! (and it goes on).

The main aim of each stage is to get all the gems, then find the exit. There's hidden items in the levels as well which unlock further computers/consoles, so its definitely worth keeping your eyes open. Most stages are well designed and have pretty solid difficulty curves - you can take 2 hits, but spikes or similar kill you instantly. The initial stages that lack scrolling I feel actually work a bit better because the game tends to learn on huge levels with hidden obstacles far too much - now while this works for certain computers which are sorta known for that style of platformer (like - Amiga & Rick Dangerous), the SNES feels a bit out of place in this regard because I think Mario World, Mega Man X and such... Plus its just annoying to lose all progress (no checkpoints btw) because spikes you never saw coming get you. Again, as stages get longer, its far more annoying to have these obstacles and have to redo a long level.

Ultimately I feel a bit of balance could have been struck with the obstacles - either not give you tons of blind jumps to 1 hit KOs, reduce said KOs, or make stages shorter (and/or get rid of the gems) to reduce the demand on the player. As unlike say Meat Boy or Celeste, or even my new favourite - Mr. Run and Jump - you have more frequent checkpointing so that high difficulty is ok, because stages are routintely shorter so losing feels less punishing.

As it stands though its still an excellent game that has a great unique hook, and it does handle and play well otherwise so I can still very much recommend it.

207. Super Double Dragon (Evercade) - DD is a series that took me a while to really get into. Despite Final Fight and SOR being huge favourites of mine, for some reason DD never quite clicked until this past year. Super does a great job of modernising the format, and really just misses the mark a bit by being 30FPS and having copious slowdown.

The game plays like your standard brawler, but now with a counter/parry button! I do love me a parry button, and it definitely influences my appreciation for this game. It feels great to grab an enemy attack and then throw or combo them. There's some catches to the move - you cant parry everything (some you just block) so knowing when to parry and when to evade is important. You also get a super meter you can charge which gives you several moves, and this is hugely important as well as the moves bolster your moves list and help out immensely against those unparriable enemies.

The rest is business as usual - fight waves of enemies through several stages, fight bosses, move on. Rinse and repeat! The game does a pretty cool thing in the last three stages where you hit a streets area with the classic DD music, then a forest, then the enemy base - something that feels VERY familiar to anyone who played the original DD game (it basically mirrors those stages real close, which is a great touch. 0 Abbobbo though, so boo)
The games length is just about perfect, difficulty is nicely paced with enemies/bosses not feeling cheap due to your moves list, and the parry feeling oh so good to use. In terms of console brawlers, this should definitely be up there with SOR2 or FF3/Tough since its brawling mechanics are sublime.

208. Double Dragons (Evercade) - The port of the NES game, played via Evercade. As mentioned above I ended up liking DD way later than the average fan, so my opinion of the NES game is probably kinder compared to those who played it back in the day and lamented the lack of 2 player co op play. Honestly... I like the port. Not sure Im a fan of the way you earn moves (I just use the exploit in level 2 to get all moves quick), but the game plays fine, especially compared to other ports at the time. The elbow of course is king, but I do love the variety of moves you got, from combos into grabs, into beating up floored enemies... Abbobo IS in this one at least, so +10 points there lol, and aside the platforming added (WHY?), I think the port holds up nice. Its smooth, fast paced, and generally pretty well done difficulty wise (aside the lack of continues). Its no Super Double Dragon, but its no Atari 2600 DD either!

209: Renegade (Evercade) - Again, its the NES port of the arcade game (which runs far better, even if it looks nowhere near as good) and this one is short. Even with the multiple difficulties that amp up that final level. Its only 4 stages long, and most of those stages only have a handful of enemies to fight. The standard punch is hilariously crap in this game - if you go into a stage and plan to give the enemies a swift right hook you'll be on your ass in seconds, but thankfully there's a nice range of moves to utilise that really shows that proto Double Dragon enegery! You've got jump kicks (excellent to stun enemies for follow up grabs), grabs which let you either smack or throw enemies, and you can climb on downed enemies for more follow up punches. Basically my strategy was to single out and down enemies, then wail on them until they flicker out of existence. It works well for your average goons, you only need to watch out for enemies around you - that's why the throw is so useful, as you can damage then throw enemies into another, defeating one, then downing the other for follow up. Its (as far as Im aware) the first brawler of its type - not quite side scrolling yet (that's DD) but it shows a nice level of depth to the combat for a genre that's basically brand new.
The bosses are more dangerous as your usual grabs dont work. You gotta whittle their health down to 2 bars and THEN down them and grapple them for the win.
The final stage is one of my pet hates - a maze that requires you to pick the right room, I pick StrategyWiki to tell me where to go lol. This level changes based on difficulty, its fairly easy going on the first difficulty but the subsequent ones throw multiple bosses at you (at once!) and it gets really tricky. Also Sabo has a gun, one hit KO... which makes that final encounter really tense!

Overall, its woefully primitive by todays standards but I still enjoy revisiting it. I might prefer it to the arcade version thanks to the smooth 60FPS performance (vs the 30? the arcade one runs at) but this series would really come into its own when it splits off into both the Double Dragon series (see above) and the greater Kunio series (River City Ransom and the like)

Next up:

Every Console/Handheld (unique) Spidey game... seriously
Runner
MH Rise Sunbreak
Rez Infinite (trophies)
Lost more VR stuff
MGS Rising
Splatterhouse (PS3)
Bayonetta 3
And a game generation worth of SFVI play!

Lizard Wizard · Jan 1, 2023

Reserved! I got pretty close to 52 games last year but I have not posted on last years thread before.

Optional Objectives · Jan 1, 2023

Round 4. Start!

hydruxo · Jan 1, 2023

I'm going to actually try to see if I can do this. Only beat 21 games last year but I went several months barely playing anything new and a chunk of my games I beat were like 60+ hours each, so I think I can manage to hit 52 if I really stick to it. Got a lot of games in my backlog I've been wanting to get to.

Completed Games (18/52):

Blue = Loved / Favorite
Purple = Liked
Orange = Decent
Red = Did not like

Sonic Frontiers - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 5/10 | Date finished: January 3rd

An unfocused game that has some bright spots. I enjoyed the over the top and fast paced boss fights that mix in some Sonic flair, but more often than not I found myself frustrated by this game. The open world islands are basically just empty fields with dozens of obstacle courses strewn across the sky and ground. I guess in the sense that it's a big playground for Sonic it works but it wasn't really fun for me nor is it particularly engaging or visually interesting to look at. By the time I got to the 3rd island I was pretty much ready to be done with the game so I ended up mainlining the story, which still is mostly just the game requiring you to do a bunch of busy work open world activities in order to progress. Overall there's a foundation here for Sonic Team to build from if they can clear out the weeds but I found Sonic Frontiers to be disappointing overall. The more I think about it the less I liked it and it's just not a game I'd want to revisit.
Signalis - Platform: PS4 | Rating: 9.5/10 | Date finished: January 8th

I'll get the negatives out of the way first because there aren't many. The combat is very basic and sometimes can be unwieldy when there are numerous enemies on screen in a tight area but thankfully like a lot of survival horror games you'll want to avoid enemies and conserve ammo/resources anyways. The six inventory slots also can be a bit of an annoyance, but there are enough save rooms with storage boxes around that it's never a particularly huge deal overall because you can run and dump key items off fairly quickly. With that out of the way, there's so much to love about this game. The PS1 horror aesthetic is done to perfection. The tone and atmosphere here is off the charts right from the title screen and it continues throughout the whole game. The puzzles are excellent, the story / world building is fascinating, and the level design is intricate but easy to comprehend with a great map system. I didn't really know anything about Signalis until a month or two ago and within only a few hours of starting it I knew right away it was something special. Definitely a favorite of mine in recent years.
Undertale - Platform: PS4 | Rating: 8.5/10 | Date finished: January 17th

This is a game I'd been wanting to play for a long time, so I finally sat down and played through it. A friend of mine told me to do the Pacifist run as its the most rewarding so I ended up going that route. The humor and meta aspects of this game are really clever and I can totally see why this game got the huge fanbase it has. The characters have a lot of personality, particularly Papyrus and Sans. Also, I knew the music was great already having heard it long before I ever played the game but man there really are some serious bangers in there. Great soundtrack. I will say that despite having some experience with bullet hells, I found that aspect of Undertale to be pretty clunky and it was something that got extremely frustrating in certain boss fights at times. There was one boss I must've died 20 times to and I was losing my mind. It just felt like if I didn't stack up tons of healing items in my inventory then I just couldn't get past it which is not fun. It felt like a war of attrition in that regard rather than an encounter I had to get better at. As a result it slightly soured me on the experience overall which is a shame because I do genuinely like everything else. I don't know if I'll ever go back for the other ending but who knows. That said, it's a neat game and I'm glad I played it.
Donkey Kong Country - Platform: SNES on Switch | Rating: 9.5/10 | Date finished: February 15th

Decided on a whim to do a DKC replay because I hadn't played it in a while. Still a great game that holds up but it is my least favorite of the trilogy. DKC 2 has always been my favorite and I think DKC 3 gets unfairly hated on a lot of the times when it builds upon a lot of what the first two did. DKC 1 put the foundation in place for the rest of the series but it is rather barebones in comparison which makes it less interesting. That said, it's still a classic and always a treat going back through it.
Destiny 2: Lightfall - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 7.5/10 | Date finished: February 28th

I've been a regular Destiny / Destiny 2 player since the very beginning so I've seen my share of highs and lows with the series. Lightfall was a bit of a rollercoaster. The story is finally hitting a culmination before the conclusion of the Light & Dark saga in The Final Shape and frankly Bungie fumbled the story in Lightfall's campaign. The tone is inconsistent, Nimbus is a clumsily written character who tries to interject humor into every scene despite the dire circumstances at hand, and the campaign also gives and takes away the new subclass Strand so often that it's frustrating rather than exciting when you finally get it for good at the very end. It's a disappointing step back for the series narratively considering how great The Witch Queen's campaign was last year. That being said, the gameplay side of Lightfall is fantastic and I've been playing more than I did in both Beyond Light and Witch Queen because Strand is just so much fun. Grappling around in activities like Spider-Man is something I never thought would work in Destiny, and it not only works flawlessly but is just an absolute blast. Spent many many hours when the new raid Root of Nightmares came out trying to beat it in contest mode within the first 48 hours with my regular group and we managed to do it with 12 hours to spare. Despite the shortcomings that Destiny 2 can have at times, the gameplay itself is the reason I always come back to it. It just always feels so damn good, and playing with friends is a blast. So TLDR, story bad gameplay good and all things considered I still had a good time with the campaign. I just hope they can get the narrative back on track with the Final Shape because there's so much potential there.
Dead Space Remake - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 9.0/10 | Date finished: April 6th

I hadn't played the original game since it first came out 15 years ago so while I remembered some parts of the game, most of it was a blur for me. It was really amazing playing through the game again with so much being revamped and fine tuned. They absolutely nailed the feel of the guns and the way Isaac moves around. Plasma Cutter feels just as satisfying as I remember, and other guns like the Force Gun and Line Gun with their incredible alt fires are absolute beasts now. EA Motive did such a wonderful job with the detail and visuals in general. The lighting is stunning and the Ishimura feels even more haunting than it did before. I can't fully remember what Isaac was like in the original, but I really liked him here. I'd give this a higher score but I do feel like it suffers slightly from some sections feeling dated design wise and I wish they had updated some of them a bit more. The final boss arena for example really should've been redesigned entirely. That being said, it's an incredible remake and I really enjoyed playing through it. Hopefully EA realizes how much of an asset Dead Space is for them and greenlights Motive to work on more games for the series.
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 8.5/10 | Date finished: April 20th

Forbidden West was an incredible game and one of my favorites from last year, so I was really looking forward to the Burning Shores DLC. I'm still working on the side content, but the main story was very enjoyable. It's more of the same overall and doesn't particularly break new ground gameplay wise, but there are some nice new additions. The new Waterwing enemy can fly and dive underwater which adds a really cool dynamic to exploration. There's also a grapple jump that lets Aloy quickly grapple to an enemy when they're downed to finish them off, as well as a bunch of new skills to unlock like a berserk blast valor surge that emits a large AOE and causes all nearby enemies to start attacking each other. Just minor stuff like that which makes combat a bit more fun. As far the main questline/story goes, it has some larger implications for the overall story but it's more of a side story for Aloy's growth as a character. She's opened up and become more accepting of help from people since the end of FW's base game, and there are some nice moments in this DLC that I won't go into detail with. Seyka is a great addition to the cast too and I hope she ends up joining the main crew in the third game. Horus fight was neat, but I was kind of letdown by the other main boss fight. Overall very enjoyable DLC if you're a fan of the games though. Not necessarily essential but well worth playing nonetheless.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 9.0/10 | Date finished: May 6th

There was a lot to like about the first game Jedi Fallen Order, but it was also a flawed game with some significant issues. I remember platinuming that game and having really mixed feelings about it because while overall I had a good time, I couldn't shake this feeling that it had so much potential but ultimately fell short. Jedi Survivor thankfully improves on virtually every aspect of the first game and I absolutely loved playing through this game. It makes the first game feel barebones and almost not worth revisiting in comparison. The combat has way more depth with the 5 stances and skill trees, story is vastly more interesting, the level design is more open and intricate, and visually it's one of the most stunning games on current gen consoles (and PC). One of my favorite things about the game is the saloon which acts as somewhat of a home base for you to keep returning to where you can recruit people to go back to the saloon and then you can go and talk to them every time you come back. There's a little space frog named Turgle voiced by Invader Zim's voice actor Richard Horvitz who is hilarious and keeps talking about trying to pull off heists, there's Skoova who is basically Mimir from God of War but in the body of a tiny Star Wars alien in a scuba suit who you'll regularly run into out in the wild on Koboh, there's Caij who is a mysterious woman who sits in a booth with her hat covering her eyes and ultimately ends up being who gives you bounty hunter locations to go hunt down. I could keep going on and on about how awesome the side characters are in this game. Everyone is so memorable. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the performance woes which are unfortunately a problem, but even with that I still would give this game the same rating as I would if those issues weren't around. It was just that fun of an experience and I think this is one of the best Star Wars games of all time. A must play, but maybe not until they fix the performance issues properly.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Platform: Switch | Rating: 8.0/10 | Date finished: May 20th

After 3 or 4 attempts to get into BOTW over the years, I finally put the time in to actually playing it all the way through. I still have my share of gripes with the game but I did enjoy it well enough overall. Weapon durability is annoying and I'm still not a fan of it. Like, sure the game floods you with weapons but I find the durability to be more of a hindrance mid-combat more than anything. Having multiple weapons break in the middle of a boss fight isn't my idea of fun, and it also makes discovering a cool new weapon from a chest or enemy less exciting because you know it'll break. I don't find it as awe inspiring as a lot of people seem to which kind of bums me out, but not every beloved game is gonna mesh with everyone. I just don't think BOTW really hits for me the same way it does for a lot of other people. Also found the Divine Beasts and Ganon to be really underwhelming. That being said, I do really like the Champions + the towns in the game and the world is very interesting to explore. Shrines, while repetitive visually, are diverse enough in their puzzles that I did find myself wanting to keep doing them. Definitely some very well made puzzles in this game. It took me probably close to 15-20 hours before I started to have things really click and I feel like the opening hours are actually somewhat off-putting with how overwhelming things can feel. I've put a few hours into Tears of the Kingdom so far and I'm enjoying that much more because of the building mechanics + weapon fusing. Ultimately I didn't love BOTW but I'm glad I finally finished the game.
Diablo IV - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 9.0/10 | Date finished: June 7th

Been playing D4 like crazy since early access started and I finished the campaign then moved up to WT3 right afterwards. I really enjoyed D3 but 4 does pretty much everything better, and I definitely prefer the darker look to the visuals here. Endgame seems much more fleshed out too. I spent a good 5 or 6 hours tonight doing Helltides and dungeons before I realized I'd been playing for that long. I would've kept going if I didn't have to wake up early for work. It's been a long while since there has been a game that has hooked me as much as D4 is right now. The combat is just very satisfying and I love it. Can't wait to keep grinding and very curious to see how they evolve the game going forward because the base game is already incredible as it is.
Remnant II - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 9.0/10 | Date finished: July 27th

Remnant 2 is a fascinating game in so many ways. On the surface, it has pretty mediocre and generic characters and story beats, but don't let that fool you. This game is absolutely loaded with secrets and loot. This is the kind of game you play for the gameplay and not the story, and the gameplay is so addicting that you won't even care that the story is nothing to write home about. You can go through the entire campaign and have an entirely different experience than your friend because of how the game does procedurally generated levels. For example in Losomn (the Bloodborne Yharnham esque world) one person can start with the palace dungeon, while one can start with an asylum. Both have wildly different main bosses and loot. It's impossible to get all the loot the game has to offer in one playthrough because of how the game generates its worlds, and while some people might be frustrated by that, I find it to be a really engaging and interesting way to give replayability to a game. There's Campaign Mode and then there's Adventure Mode, the latter of which lets you reroll any of the worlds specifically and none of the others so that you can get different dungeon combinations and try to focus on obtaining any gear you might be hunting down in that world. As someone who loves loot shooters and just secrets in games in general, this game is beyond addicting. The secrets aren't just basic ones either, there are some very in-depth puzzles, labyrinths, riddles, and more to uncover. Combat also feels great too. The shooting, melee, and dodging all feel snappy and responsive. There's a gun called the Engima which has an alt fire that is basically just Destiny 2's Anarchy and Returnal's Electropylon Driver and needless to say once I got it it's never been unequipped lmao.

One of my favorite things about the game are the archetypes (or classes) of which they had only announced 5 pre-launch. Well, turns out there are 6 other hidden ones in the game for people to find. Some are fairly straightforward, others take significant legwork to hunt down and I love that you can discover entire new classes in the game. This is a game that is just pure fun to explore and discover things in, and I'm really looking forward to playing more + seeing what they add with the 3 DLC packs in the future.
Spider-Man 2 - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 9.5/10 | Date finished: October 26th

Can't really ask for a better sequel than this. I loved the first game + Miles Morales, and SM2 just does everything better. Story is great all the way through and I loved the way they reintroduce Harry Osborne into the story and make him the focal point that everything stems from. I think Harry and Peter's dynamic in this game is one of the best depictions of friendship I've ever seen in a game. It just felt so genuine and it really drew me into the story. The way Insomniac is able to effortlessly juggle both numerous storylines involving Peter, Miles, Harry, MJ, and a handful of other characters is extremely impressive. The pacing is brisk, and there's never a dull moment. The back half of the game has some truly awe inspiring sequences and boss fights that really show that Insomniac is at the top of their game. The level of polish on display here from visuals, performance, animations, etc is unmatched. There's nobody else in the industry making AAA games this good this fast and this (for the most part) bug-free. The gameplay is also improved from the last two games with a good amount of new abilities to utilize. I do think the lack of gadgets is a downside from SM1 though. The four gadgets in SM2 are very samey and I found myself missing the special suit gadgets/abilities that most suits had in the first game. Not a huge deal, but just one of my gripes.

Overall, this game was a fantastic experience and I respect that Insomniac makes these games with just enough content to leave you wanting more without giving into trying to pack their open worlds to the brim with filler. They want you to play it, enjoy it, and move on and I appreciate that. This is probably the new king of superhero games. It'll be hard to top for many years to come, and honestly Insomniac is probably just fighting against themselves at this point. Nobody else is doing what they're capable of doing.
Alan Wake 2 - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 10/10 | Date finished: November 6th

This is a once in a lifetime type of game, at least for me. Remedy was already one of my favorite developers but they've pushed the limits of what's possible with storytelling in games so many times, and Alan Wake 2 only raises the bar further. This game has some of the most inventive and unique visuals and sequences that I have ever seen in a game. Nobody else is doing the kind of stuff Remedy is doing here. I can't even really go into much detail without spoiling it but suffice to say every mission left me in awe of what they've created here. As a longtime David Lynch fan, this is a dream game for me. The heavy amount of Twin Peaks homages and references are great, and the tone / dreamlike atmosphere clearly draws inspiration from Twin Peaks: The Return's much darker tone. I can't think of any other games that are able to recreate that dream logic and vibe that Lynch's work evokes, but Remedy just really gets it. Control was the same way.

Remedy has always played around with live action in their games but they've found the perfect way to include it here in meaningful ways that make sense. Once again it'd be difficult for me to say much about the way the game uses live action without spoiling much but I will say that there's a sequence that utilizes live action in a big way and it's probably one of my all-time favorite gaming sequences. It makes Control's Ashtray Maze look like a student project in comparison. Onto the combat, I'm really glad they went the survival horror Resident Evil route because the gameplay is much more engaging now than it was in Alan Wake 1. The exploration is fantastic with numerous open areas that are filled with interesting collectibles and puzzles. The town of Watery and the Coffee World amusement park are absolutely dripping with atmosphere and they feel so real and lived in. Same goes for the Dark Place's dreary and mysterious supernatural noir version of NYC. This is easily one of the most visually stunning games I've ever played. No other game captures a dark forest as well as Alan Wake 2 does.

Needless to say I think Alan Wake 2 is a game people will be talking about for years to come. Remedy and Sam Lake take so many risks that could easily have tanked this game, but instead they make it a triumph that only they could pull off. In a year with so many incredible releases, I don't think anything else will top AW2 for me. I could tell halfway through the game that it would be my game of the year and finishing it only cemented that for me. I'm beyond excited for the DLCs and I can't wait to see how they tie everything together with Control 2 and other future projects. Remedy, please never swinging for the fences with your weird ass games.
Super Mario RPG - Platform: Switch | Rating: 8/10 | Date finished: November 24th

I originally played SMRPG as a kid many years ago and I remember really liking it but my memory was very fuzzy about most of the game. Played through the remake over the past week and it was a blast revisiting the game with a fresh coat of paint. The combat and humor is still a lot of fun and I love how they wrote Bowser in this. The new triple gauge attacks they added were a neat addition. I don't remember it being such a short game (beat it in 11 hours which seems to be the pretty in line with what most people beat it in) but I kind of like that it doesn't overstay its welcome.

I will say though, the minigames and some awkward platforming brought the game down to an 8/10. They really did not do enough quality of life improvements in that respect. Sections like the platforming on the beanstalk vines and paratroopa cliff with the set camera angle are incredibly awkward and unintuitive to the point it's just frustrating. Not all the minigames were bad, but I'd say most of them are. The Boshi race's weird and clunky A+B rhythm mashing is terrible and it's one of those things where they really should have changed it more than they did rather than trying to stay true to the original. Also, the six doors section in the final area is really tedious (12 fights in a row while walking down a hallway for the combat encounter rooms, counting 40+ barrels stacked up in a corner where you can barely tell how many are there and you only have like 20 seconds, etc.) and I still hate that part. It drags the game to a halt right before the end and I think this section was poorly designed.

Overall, it's a good game and I enjoy it a lot but I do think certain aspects of it have not aged too well. I thought Link's Awakening remake showed how timeless that game's design was, whereas with SMRPG you really feel how simplistic and dated many parts of it are. I really enjoy the game nonetheless, but it's just interesting to see how things evolve over time. Lastly, it was so great to see Geno and Mallow again. It's a shame we never saw them appear in other Mario games.
Final Fantasy XVI - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 8/10 | Date finished: December 1st

Started this back when it first came out in June but only made it about 10 hours in before putting it aside. Finally came back to it after Thanksgiving and finished it up over the past week. It's a pretty good game but I never found myself enamored by it. It takes way too long to get the different Eikons which is one of my biggest gripes. I get that they wanted to space them out for story reasons but you basically just have Ifrit, Phoenix, and Garuda for the first 15-20 hours. Once you have more than those initial 3 eikons, I think the combat opens up a lot more with all the options you have. Speaking of combat, it's a lot of fun and the abilities are satisfying to use. There are a few bosses with annoying attacks but overall the game is fairly easy. The dodge window is very generous. As for the eikon battles which are the biggest draw of the game, they start out pretty on rails but later on they feel more like actual battles at times. You don't have a whole lot of options for special abilities while playing as an eikon which makes it feel a little tedious, but they're still fun moments. The Bahamut fight was incredible in terms of spectacle and scale. There's a lot of downtime in between the major story beats and I think the pacing suffers because of it, but when shit pops off it's really good. The side quests are largely boring IMO, and I ended up mostly sticking to the ones that give you upgrades like extra potions, more HP from potions, chocobo, etc. because the rewards for normal side quests are lacking and they often can feel like filler. I have a lot of side quests left and I'm not sure I'll bother with the rest. Might do the hunts because there are some unique bosses in there from what it seems, so that's neat at least.
As far as the story and characters go, it's a mixed bag. I think there are some really great moments here and there but some characters like Jill and Benedikta are given early prominence only for Square to squander their potential. Clive is the main protagonist and I like him a lot, but I do wish other characters were given more of a chance to shine. Jill is mostly just tagging along with Clive and we don't get much background for her beyond her brief mission for revenge halfway through the story. I really liked Dion too, but thankfully I do feel like he was given a solid arc. The story ends in a relatively unsatisfying way IMO with a lot of collateral damage, but it is what it is. I'm curious to see what the DLC will bring and if it will help to make the ending feel a bit less underwhelming. So yeah, it sounds like I didn't like the game that much but overall I enjoyed my time it. I just think it had some fundamental issues that hold it back from being a truly great game which is a bummer. I think it's a game that is well worth a playthrough (and I'm interested in the upcoming DLC) but not sure I'd revisit for another playthrough.
God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 9/10| Date finished: December 14th

I'm including this because while it's just a free DLC, it's basically a self-contained 6-8 hour story and a damn good one at that. I played through and platinumed GoW:R when it came out last year and loved my time with it. Valhalla adds a roguelite mode that has a surprising amount of story content and dialogue. Do not skip this DLC if you're a fan of God of War but don't like roguelites. This is a very worthwhile mode that ties up the events of Ragnarok with a satisfying epilogue. Santa Monica could've easily charged for this but the fact that we got such a meaty piece of content for free is amazing.

The gameplay loop of Valhalla is addicting and adds a huge amount of replayability for a game that already has top tier combat. Lots of challenge here for anyone who wants to keep playing and push themselves further. Also really loved that they brought back so many Greek enemies. This was an excellent DLC and I really enjoyed coming back to the game.
Lies of P - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 8.5/10 | Date finished: December 14th

Lies of P is a game that I initially wrote off almost entirely when it was revealed. The concept of a Pinocchino themed Soulslike that is heavily inspired by Bloodborne seemed ridiculous and I didn't see any way this would end up being anything other than a forgettable game with a unique concept. I even tried the demo and didn't really care for it at the time either. The level design in the first area seemed uninspired and the parrying/dodging felt off. Boy, was I wrong. Once I finally dove into the game, I saw very quickly that it has a ton to offer and that it was an extremely well made Soulslike. The progression systems throughout the game are designed in a way they you constantly feel like you're unlocking something and getting stronger. The game has a brisk pace of moving through a wide variety of environments and they never overstay their welcome. You're in and out of an area in just enough time and I loved that. Same goes for enemy variety, of which there's an insanely high amount of. Combat feels fantastic and it's very parry focused so you basically have to learn the parry timing if you want to make sure you don't struggle much.

Lastly, I think this game handles its characters better than any other Soulslike (and some Souls games too). I was actually intrigued by everyone in the hotel and their backstories. The story isn't anything to write home about, but it was much better than I would've ever expected from a Pinocchio game. Overall, this game was such a wonderful surprise and I had a blast playing through it. Really looking forward to the DLC and the sequel. The post-credits tease for the sequel was so out of left field (in a very good way) that I still cannot believe that they're seemingly going that route. I can't wait to see what the devs do with the sequel. Shoutout to the devs for making arguably the best Soulslike yet, especially considering this was their first big game and everything they've done before wasn't particularly good. Huge glow up for them.
Cocoon - Platform: PS5 | Rating: 8.5/10 | Date finished: December 25th

This is a game I've been wanting to play since the reveal for it because it looked so unique and creative. It's a fairly short experience at around 3-4 hours total, but it's a very tightly designed game. There's no dialogue (or even text at all in-game outside of the start menu) and it adds a lot to the mysterious nature of the whole thing. The environments are gorgeous and the music has some strong moments as well. As far as the puzzles go, it never gets too difficult because it's a fairly linear game overall. However, as the game goes on and you get more orbs to maneuver around, you really have to start thinking outside the box because they stack layers upon layers on top of you. The puzzle design is really interesting and I had a fun time figuring them out. The flawlessly synced transitions when you teleport between orb worlds is super cool. I will say that the game does have some boss fights and they were probably my least favorite aspect of the game. They're mostly fine, but there are a few that were a bit frustrating (phase 2 of Orb Guardian in particular).

Overall though I had a really good time playing this and I enjoyed that they don't really tell you what to do. You have to figure it out on your own and there are no hints or text to guide you. Some people might hate that, but I think for this game it really works to help you feel like you're on this alien world trying to uncover the secrets of it. Very cool game.

Ted · Jan 1, 2023

Good to see a 2023 thread up so soon. Nice one Wozzer. I'm in for another year, maybe this will finally be the year I get it done under the current stewardship of the thread!

Good luck everyone, I hope your 2023 is happy, prosperous and full of good games.

Previous years:
2017 - 52
2018 - 10
2019 - 38
2020 - 32
2021 - 17
2022 - 8

> 2023 progress diary (last updated 27/November):

18/January - Metro Exodus - 28 hours
A very interesting game and a well realised departure from the Metro tunnels of Moscow. It doesn't have the polish of some of the bigger studios out there but get past that and it's an excellent journey told from an interesting perspective.

21/January - Call of Duty: MWII WZ / DMZ / MP (Season 1) - Some hours!
Completed the battle pass for Season 1. A good start to the game but I do have some issues, all of them are resolvable though so I'll wait and see.

22/January - Metro Exodus - Two Colonels (DLC) - 3 hours
Short but excellent. I don't normally like flashback story telling but it works really well here. And flamethrowers are always fun.

01/February - Metro Exodus - Sam's Story (DLC) - 8 hours
Conversely to the Two Colonels DLC, maybe a little long with one or two sections feeling a little added on but still worth playing. The ending(s) are interesting and the one I chose really did make me feel a little bad for the long suffering Sam.

12/February - Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War - 10 hours
An interesting and bombastic but fairly predictable campaign. Fun to play through and I liked the puzzle elements to 'solving' the two extra side missions.

18/March - SCUM - 93 hours
You can't really complete something like this but I've played enough of the early access to get to the point where I know it well and consider it 'played'. I've mostly stopped as the changes they are making at this stage are meaning too many restarts and I'd rather now just wait and play again if and when it gets more stable in terms of content. I played a little bit of this multiplayer but mostly played it like a solo survival explore 'em up. I would never recommend something like to anyone but if it's your kind of thing you'll know it and probably enjoy it.

22/March - Call of Duty: MWII WZ / DMZ / MP (Season 2) - Some hours!
Still enjoying the multiplayer, new maps are big but fun enough. Not digging resurgence and Ashika Island as much as I'd hoped but it might just be a case of getting to know it better. Still overall expecting to see continued tweaking so as per season 1, wait and see how it goes into season 3.

27/May - State of Decay 2 - 60 hours
I still love this game. Sure it has flaws but overall it's just such a great blend of survival, base management and exploration that I can forgive them. Really looking forward to what the team bring to the table in State of Decay 3.

28/May - F1 22 - 54 hours
Last F1 game I played was 2019 and this feels very similar. A little better in some areas, a little regressive in others. Played through a couple of seasons (well three if you include the shortened F2 season that starts the career) and broadly enjoyed it but I do think they could do so much more with the single player campaign.

30/May - Call of Duty: MWII WZ / DMZ / MP (Season 3) - Some hours!
Completed the season 3 battlepass. I thought season 3 had some interesting new things here and there. Still playing a decent amount of MP, a little DMZ and a little resurgence. I much prefer massive resurgence on the big map but I think that's just because I don't really like Ashika Island very much. This was also the season where I finished getting the gold camos on all the assault rifles so I can go for platinum, a first for me! Understandable I guess given the amount of camos per gun is drastically reduced. Overall, not a bad season bar the quite P2W elements added to DMZ that really do annoy me, if only on principle. Still makes me drop my rating, for want of a better term, from good to OK.

04/June - Assassin's Creed Origins - 68 hours
Started this ages ago, it's too long but finally after a break I've finished the main story line and most of the side missions. It's a beautifully realised world but one that is very typical in it's Ubisoft gameplay design. Probably why it took me so long to get through it. Some wonderful locations and vistas though and generally some good times had both in the game and in the discovery mode so I can't be too harsh.

19/June - Day of the Tentacle - 3.7 hours
I love this game and it's fantastically remastered. Great job all round.

25/July - Call of Duty: MWII WZ / DMZ / MP (Season 4) - Some hours!
Cut this one fine due to some PC issues and surgery. Got it done though with a week to spare. Quite enjoying the new map Vondel and the changes to DMZ. Have got quite in the Koschei Complex as a good solo re-equip your character with basic 3 plate and medium backup gear run. The events have been a bit lacklustre but you can't have everything.

30/July - Shakedown: Hawaii - 13.2 hours
Silly fun with some on the nose commentary on society and capitalism today.

12/August - Divinity: Original Sin II Definitive Edition - 186.3 hours
What a ride. I've been playing this for the best part of three years and I genuinely felt like applauding as the credits rolled. What a fantastic game. Now onto Baldur's Gate 3 I guess!

14/October - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 - 19.2 hours
Got all goals and golds. Still a really fun game but I wish they had removed Olly the Bum which feels a little out of touch given the current climate.

05/November - Call of Duty Modern Warfare III - 6 hours
Short campaign that seems to be getting widespread derision. I get it, it's is clearly rushed but there's quite a bit to like in here for me personally. I like the changes to movement, I like the new horizontal zips, I continue to like the gameplay feel. I even liked a few of the open world missions and will definitely play them again with a better loadout now I have unlocked stuff and the more scripted scenes were OK. I mean if you're buying COD just for the SP, 100% wait for a sale for sure but if the MP and Zombies turn out good then this is a nice little appetizer.

25/November - Call of Duty: MWII WZ / DMZ / MP (Season 6) - Some hours!
Managed to get this season done in plenty of time due to the release of MWIII else I might not have done so. I REALLY like massive resurgence on Al Mazrah and then it went away! Stop taking away obviously popular modes please. I'm glad I did finish it though as some of the skins are some of my favourite since release.

Call of Duty Campaigns
Since I completed the MWII campaign and haven't bothered with BOCW or Vanguard despite playing a bunch of MP and Zombies in both games thought I might run through these at some point.

Call of Duty: Vanguard - Sledgehammer Games - PC
Played a lot of the MP and Zombies but never actually completed the campaign so I decided to play through a bit more of it in a lull in MWII WZ/DMZ/MP content until Season 4.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Ubisoft - PC
Picked this up after finishing Origins and after completing chapter 1 I am enjoying it. I prefer (so far) the Egyptian setting but the Odyssey story has kind of captured me. I want to find the Wolf of Sparta and find out what happens next and I don't think I ever truly cared about the story in Origins besides it making for a reason to be in Egypt.

Temporarily put aside due to a replicable crash, have tried verifying files but it changes nothing so will uninstall and redownload soon.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands - Ubisoft - PC
Fancied a large open world shooter and remember enjoying this when I finished it a few years ago so why not.

> Completed Games (18/52) - 34 to go

#01: Metro Exodus - 4A Games - PC - ★★★★☆
#02: Call of Duty: MWII WZ / DMZ / MP (Season 1) - Infinity Ward / Raven Software - PC - ★★★☆☆
#03: Metro Exodus - The Two Colonels - 4A Games - PC - ★★★★☆
#04: Metro Exodus - Sam's Story - 4A Games - PC - ★★★★☆
#05: Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War - Treyarch - PC - ★★★☆☆
#06: SCUM - Gamepires - PC - ★★☆☆☆
#07: Call of Duty: MWII WZ / DMZ / MP (Season 2) - Infinity Ward / Raven Software - PC - ★★★☆☆
#08: State of Decay 2 - Undead Labs - PC - ★★★★☆
#09: F1 22 - Codemasters - PC - ★★★☆☆
#10: Call of Duty: MWII WZ / DMZ / MP (Season 3) - Infinity Ward / Raven Software - PC - ★★☆☆☆
#11: Assassin's Creed Origins - Ubisoft - PC - ★★★☆☆
#12: Day of the Tentacle - Double Fine - PC - ★★★★☆
#13: Call of Duty: MWII WZ / DMZ / MP (Season 4) - Infinity Ward / Raven Software - PC - ★★★☆☆
#14: Shakedown: Hawaii - Vblank Entertainment - PC - ★★★☆☆
#15: Divinity: Original Sin II Definitive Edition - Larian Studios - PC - ★★★★★
#16: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 - Vicarious Visions - PC - ★★★★☆
#17: Call of Duty: MWIII Campaign - Sledgehammer Games - PC - ★★★☆☆
#18: Call of Duty: MWII WZ / DMZ / MP (Season 6) - Infinity Ward / Raven Software - PC - ★★★☆☆

★☆☆☆☆ - Bad | ★★☆☆☆ - OK | ★★★☆☆ - Good | ★★★★☆ - Great | ★★★★★ - Exceptional

> Currently Playing

Actively playing:

We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie - MONKEYCRAFT - PC
I completely forgot this came out this year and then randomly noticed it on sale. I almost waited until it wasn't but instead bought a friend a copy too. The title is fitting as I do, in fact, LOVE Katamari.
Circuit Superstars - Original Fire Games - PC
Isometric racers hold a special place in my heart so this was a must buy.
Horizon Chase Turbo - AQUIRIS - PC
Harks back to arcade classic racers which were never really my thing but only really because I couldn't afford to play them!
Baldur's Gate 3 - Larian Studios - PC
Loved D:OSIIDE and never touched anything DnD related so I am looking forward to getting stuck in.
Microsoft Flight Simulator - Asobo Studios - PC
Been meaning to do a round the world flight and finally upgraded my PC to be able to play at vaguely acceptable framerates so time to start that. Hopefully a CPU upgrade in the nearish future will make it even better.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey - Ubisoft - PC
After enjoying Origins and it lasting me so long, why not!?
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 / DMZ / MP - Infinity Ward / Raven Software - PC
Occasional sessions with friends in BR/DMZ, regular solo MP sessions.

Occasionally messing with:

Cities Skylines - Colossal Order - PC
Playing with a few different cities and self-imposed scenarios.
Kerbal Space Program - Squad - PC
Muddling about with my commsats orbiting every planet mission.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 - SCS Software - PC
Slowly building my trucking empire.

JustTom · Jan 1, 2023

I am back and I try to beat it again! I am not very hopeful since I have two kids now but I just finished building my gaming pc two days ago with receiving my 3080ti fe - so maybe that'll help!

Here we fckn go!
And happy new year to everyone.

1. Portal with RTX - 01.01.2023 (PC)
2. Neon White - 16.01.2023 (PC)
3. ADACA - 11.02.2023 (PC)
4. Hi-Fi Rush - 17.02.2023 (PC)
5. Returnal - 05.03.2023 (PC)
6. Aperture Desk Job - 04.04.2023 (Steam Deck)
7. Resident Evil 4 Remake - 19.04.2023 (PC/Steam Deck)
8. The Callisto Protocol - 04.05.2023 (PC/Steam Deck)
9. OlliOlli World - 24.05.2023 (PC/Steam Deck)
10. The House of the Dead Remake - 27.05.2023 (PC)
11. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - 10.06.2023 (Steam Deck)
12. Cuphead (for the 7th time I think) - 04.07.2023 (Steam Deck)
13. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - 07.07.2023 (PC)
14. Cassette Beasts - 16.07.2023 (PC/Steam Deck)
15. Gravity Circuit - 21.97.2023 (PC/Steam Deck)
16. Ghostrunner Project_Hel - 24.07.2023 (PC)
17. Lost in Play - 25.07.2023 (PC/Steam Deck)
18. Paw Patrol The Movie - Adventure City Calls - 02.08.2023 (Steam Deck)
19. Hogwarts Legacy - 08.08.2023 (PC/Steam Deck)
20. Warhammer 40.000: Boltgun - 14.08.2023 (PC/Steam Deck)
21. En Garde! - 19.08.2023 (PC/Steam Deck)
22. Shadow Tactics Blades of the Shogun - Aiko's Choice - 22.08.23 (Steam Deck)
23. Signalis - 25.08.2023 (PC/Steam Deck)
24. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty - 29.08.2023 (PC)
25. Super Mario 3D World - Bowser's Fury (Switch)
26. Steelrising - 07.09.2023 (PC)
27. Lunistice - 09.09.2023 (PC/Steam Deck)
28. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intermission - 18.09.2023 (PS5)
29. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge - 19.09.2023 (XBox Series S)
30. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 20.09.2023 (PC)
31. I Expect You To Die 2 - 20.09.2023 (Quest 2)
32. Resident Evil 4 Remake Separate Ways DLC - 26.09.2023 (PC)
33. Alan Wake's American Nightmare - 05.10.2023 (Steam Deck/ PC)
34. Cocoon - 06.10.2023 (Steam Deck/PC)
35. Streets of Rage - 06.10.2023 (Steam Deck)
36. Streets of Kamurocho - 07.10.2023 (PC)
37. Streets of Rage 2 - 07.10.2023 (Steam Deck)
38. Streets of Rage 3 - 08.10.2023 (Steam Deck)
39. Streets of Rage 4 - 09.10.2023 (Steam Deck)
40. Sonic The Hedgehog - 09.10.2023 (Steam Deck)
41. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 - 10.10.2023 (PC)
42. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles - 11.10.2023 (Steam Deck)
43. Sonic CD - 11.10.2023 (Steam Deck)
44. Sonic The Hedgehog 4 - Episode I - 12.10.2023 (PC)
45. Sonic The Hedgehog 4 - Episode II - 12.10.2023 (PC)
46. Sonic Mania - 13.10.2023 (Steam Deck/PC)
47. The Last of Us Part I - 16.10.2023 (PS5)
48. CRISIS CORE –FINAL FANTASY VII– REUNION - 17.10.2023 (Steam Deck/PC)
49. Super Mario Bros. Wonder - 22.10.2023 (Nintendo Switch)
50. Spider-Man 2 - 08.11.2023 (PS5)
51. Sonic Superstars - 20.11.2023 (Steam Deck)
52. Dead Space - 03.12.2023 (PC)

Sidenote: If I make it this year, I'll retire from core gaming and move on to a new hobby only sticking to like three or four games a year.

Deleted member 11285 · Jan 1, 2023

I'd like to play more games this year. It'll be fun keeping track of things at least!

Completed games - 28/52

1: Peggle Deluxe - PopCap Games - PC - 2/1/23
2: Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope - Ubisoft - Switch - 6/1/23
3: Hi-Fi Rush - Tango Gameworks - Xbox Series X - 5/2/23
4: Gunstar Heroes - Treasure - Steam Deck - 5/2/23
5: Fire Emblem Engage - Intelligent Systems - Nintendo Switch - 25/2/23
6: TMNT: Shredder's Revenge - Tribute Games - Xbox Series X - 26/2/23
7: Five Dates - Wales Interactive - Steam Deck - 19/3/23
8: Resident Evil 4 Remake - Capcom - Xbox Series X - 2/4/23
9: Biker Mice From Mars - Konami - Super Nintendo - 10/4/23
10: Pineapple On Pizza - Majorariatto - Steam Deck - 10/4/23
11: A Short Hike - adamgryu - Steam Deck - 16/4/23
12: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition - Monolith Soft - Nintendo Switch - 25/4/23
13: Football Manager 23 - Sports Interactive - PC - 29/4/23
14: Super Monkey Ball - Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio - Gamecube - 10/5/23
15: Parappa The Rapper - NanaOn-Sha - PlayStation - 10/5/23
16: Parappa The Rapper 2 - NanaOn-Sha - PlayStation 2 - 11/5/23
17: Dead Island 2 - Dambuster Studios - Xbox Series X - 12/5/23
18: If Found... - DREAMFEEL - Steam Deck - 14/5/23
19: Hotline Miami - Dennaton Games - Steam Deck - 20/5/23
20: Perfect Gold: The Alchemy of Happiness - Yangyang Mobile - Steam Deck - 28/5/23
21: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Nintendo - Nintendo Switch - 2/7/23
22: Final Fantasy XVI - Square Enix Creative Business Unit III - PlayStation 5 - 29/7/23
23: Pikmin 4 - 1/9/23
24: Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate - 12/9/23
25: Alan Wake Remastered - 15/9/23
26: Alan Wake American Nightmare - 16/9/23
27: Undertale - 26/9/23
28: Resident Evil Revelations - 29/9/23
29: Control

______________________________________________

1: Peggle Deluxe - PopCap Games - PC

I was browsing Steam to see if there's anything else I wanna pick up before the sale ends and Peglin came up in my discovery queue. Stuck that on my wishlist and decided to go play Peggle instead! According to Steam it's been 9 years since I last played it. Still as good as I remember. EA really should do more with Peggle. Hopefully Peglin is wildly successful and makes them rethink things.

Ongoing games

1: Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope
2: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth + DLC
3: Diablo III + Reaper of Souls
4: Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale

KtotheRoc · Jan 1, 2023

After completing 65 games in 2018, 73 games in 2019, 81 games in 2020, 70 games in 2021, and 69 games in 2022, I'm back to take on the challenge for 2023.

(I'm ditching Review Scores this year. I don't usually like doing them and just want to see what it feels like to write a few blurbs over the course of this thread.)

1: Chained Echoes. End: 1/1/2023
2: Dr. Mario 64. End: 1/2/2023
3: Gunstar Heroes. End: 1/8/2023
4: Spider-Man Remastered. End: 1/9/2023
5: Spider-Man: Miles Morales. End: 1/12/2023
6: Kirby's Avalanche. End: 1/15/2023
7: Pokémon Snap. End: 1/16/2023
8: Assassin's Creed Origin. End: 1/20/2023
9: Pokémon Scarlet. End: 1/23/2023
10: Persona 3 Portable. End: 2/1/2023
11: Persona 4 Golden. End: 2/7/2023
12: Kuru Kuru Kururin. End: 2/10/2023
13: Kirby's Dream Land. End: 2/11/2023
14: WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! End: 2/12/2023
15: Sonic Frontiers. End: 2/14/2023
16: Scarlet Nexus. End: 2/19/2023
17: Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. End: 2/23/2023.
18: Super Mario Land 2. End: 2/24/2023.
19: Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. End: 2/24/2023.
20: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. End: 3/8/2023.
21: Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. End: 3/13/2023.
22: The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. End: 3/14/2023.
23: Breath of Fire. End: 3/23/2023.
24: Assassin's Creed Odyssey. End: 3/26/2023.
25: A Memoir Blue. End: 3/29/2023.
26: Bayonetta 3. End: 4/4/2023.
27: Breath of Fire II. End: 4/7/2023
28: Metroid Fusion. End: 4/8/2023.
29: Coffee Talk. End: 4/20/2023.
30: Fire Emblem Engage. End: 4/21/2023.
31: Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster. End: 4/24/2023.
32: Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed. End: 4/29/2023.
33: Mega Man Battle Network. End: 5/3/2023.
34: Hi-Fi Rush. End: 5/5/2023.
35: Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster. End: 5/7/2023.
36: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. End: 5/10/2023.
37: Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels. End: 5/11/2023.
38: Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly. End: 5/19/2023.
39: Super Mario Advance. End: 5/26/2023.
40: Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2. End: 5/27/2023.
41: Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3. End: 5/29/2023.
42: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. End: 6/5/2023.
43: Quantum Break. End: 6/10/2023.
44: Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster. End: 6/18/2023.
45: Planet of Lana. End: 6/25/2023.
46: Harvest Moon (SNES). End: 6/30/2023.
47: Final Fantasy XVI. End: 7/15/2023.
48: Dordogne. End: 7/21/2023.
49: Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy. End: 7/28/2023.
50: Mega Man Battle Network 2. End: 7/31/2023.
51: River City Girls Zero. End: 8/1/2023.
52: Pikmin 4. End: 8/12/2023

52 games complete!

53: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX. End: 8/16/2023.
54: Sonic the Hedgehog. End: 8/16/2023.
55: Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster. End: 8/17/2023.
56: DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace. End: 8/22/2023.
57: Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. End: 8/24/2023.
58: Tinykin. End: 8/26/2023.
59: Sonic CD. End: 8/30/2023.
60: Sonic the Hedgehog 2. End: 9/11/2023.
61: Sea of Stars. End: 9/13/2023.
62: Eastward. End: 9/21/2023.
63: Grandia II. End: 10/6/2023.
64: Pikmin 1. End: 10/8/2023.
65: Marvel's Spider-Man 2. End: 10/23/2023.
66: Super Mario Bros. Wonder. End: 10/26/2023.
67: Octopath Traveler II. End: 11/20/2023.
68: Super Mario RPG (Remake). End: 11/27/2023.
69: Star Ocean: The Second Story R. End: 12/4/2023.
70: Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster. End: 12/11/2023.
71: Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster. End: 12/15/2023.
72: Final Fantasy VII Remake. End: 12/29/2023.
73: Final Fantasy VII Remake Episode Intermission. End: 12/29/2023.

CrazyAznKT · Jan 1, 2023

Barely finished 52 last year because of school and general life events, really thought I wouldn't finished and almost switched to just playing longer games, but I'm prepared to blast through my backlog more than any previous year!

edit: lol. lmao even.

Previous Years:
2022 - 52 games
2021 - 54 games
2020 - 57 games
2019 - 56 games
2018 - 70 games

Haven't done any graphics yet.

1. God of War: Ragnarok (PS5) | Jan 12 - 68hrs | 5/5
2. Yakuza: Like A Dragon (PS5) | Jan 30 - 100hrs | 5/5
3. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call (3DS) | Feb 16 - 47hrs | 5/5
4. Umurangi Generation: Macro (Switch) | Feb 17 - 1 hr | 5/5
5. Hi-Fi Rush (PC) | Feb 22 - 15hrs | 5/5
6. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999) (PS1) | Mar 9 - 12hrs | 4/5
7. Resident Evil 4 (2005) (PS4) | Mar 21 - 20hrs | 5/5
8. Resident Evil 4 (2023) (PS5) | Apr 7 - 53hrs | 5/5
9. River City Girls 2 (Switch) | Apr 9 - 16 hrs | 5/5
10. Star Wars - Jedi: Fallen Order | Apr 9 - 30hrs | 4/5
11. Star Wars - Jedi: Survivor | May 18 - 55hrs | 4/5
12. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch) | Jul 1 - 175hrs | 5/5
13. Sniper Elite 5: Season Pass 2 (PS5) | Jul 18 - 10hrs | 4/5
14. Final Fantasy XVI (PS5) | Aug 14 - 70hrs | 4/5
15. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PS5) | Aug 17 - 14hrs | 4/5
16. Pico Park (Switch) | Sep 4 - 6hrs | 4/5
17. Pokemon Scarlet: The Teal Mask (Switch) | Sep 18 - 10hrs | 4/5
18. Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways (2023) (PS5) | Sep 23 - 12 hours | 5/5
19. Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood Patches (PS5) | Sep 27 - 200hrs | 4/5
20. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line (Switch) | Set 28 - 60hrs | 5/5
21. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: Deluxe DLC (Switch) | Sep 29 - 3hrs | 5/5
22. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: Season Pass Vol 1 (Switch) | Sep 29 - 3hrs | 5/5
23. Pokemon Sword (Switch) | Oct 15 - 40hrs | 4/5
24. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5) | Oct 25 - 32hrs | 4/5
25. Raiden V (PS5) | Oct 25 - 3hrs | 4/5
26. Pokemon Sword: The Isle of Armor (Switch) | Nov 3 - 10hrs | 4/5
27. Pokemon Sword: The Crown Tundra (Switch) | Nov 5 - 12hrs | 4/5
28. Lost Judgement (PS5) | Nov 25 - 97hrs | 5/5
29. Lost Judgement: The Kaito Files (PS5) | Dec 2 - 11hrs | 5/5
30. Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5) | Dec 10 - 40hrs | 5/5
31. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: Season Pass Vol 2 (Switch) | Dec 12 - 3hrs | 5/5
32. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: Season Pass Vol 3 (Switch) | Dec 14 - 3hrs | 5/5
33. WarioWare: Move It! (Switch) | Dec 20 - 10hrs | 5/5
34. Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core Reunion (PS5) | December 31st - 26hrs | 4/5

toysoffire · Jan 1, 2023

[game complete] Inscryption | PS5 -
[game complete] The Last of Us | PS4 -
[game complete] Stray | PS5 -
[game complete] The Last of Us Part II | PS5 -
[game complete] Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins | Switch -
[game complete] Yakuza 0 | PS4 -
[game complete] Castlevania: Symphony of the Night | PSX -
[game complete] Super Mario Land | Gameboy on MiSTer -
[game complete] Celeste | PS4 -
[game complete] Paradise Killer | XSX -
[game complete] Dredge | PS5 -
[game complete] It Takes Two | XSX -
[game complete] Dungeon Encounters | Steam (Deck) -
[game complete] Spider-Man Miles Morales | PS5 -
[game complete] Final Fantasy XVI | PS5 -
[game complete] Hitman (2016) | PC -
[game complete] Armored Core 6: Fire of Rubicon | PC -
[game complete] Void Stranger | PC -
[game complete] Citizen Sleeper | PC -

Completion Count: 19 of 52

L Thammy · Jan 1, 2023

2022 results - 33 games

1. Twinkle Star Sprites
Outstanding - ★★★★ (4/4)

This is a fighting game by way of a shoot em up, where destroying enemies on your screen throws additional attacks to the enemy's screen. I've actually beaten this one before on story mode, but I decided to sign up for a tournament, so I wanted to practice. I ended up playing through character mode with all the characters and ramping up until I was at the hardest difficulty.

The rules to this game aren't totally intuitive, so there's a lot to learn. I was revising my gameplay until they very end. Learning to use charge shots when the opponent's under pressure, learning to avoid volleying back normal attacks so that the opponent has less room to retaliate, learning to be on guard for bubbled enemy formations, learning to maximize directional charge shots.

Unfortunately it was all for naught since I was knocked out of the tournament quickly, but I think my opponent was just too good. I feel pretty confident that I'm decently strong, and at least I was doing well in the practice rounds.

2. Shock Troopers
Outstanding - ★★★★ (4/4)

This one's a top down free movement shooter, very in the lines of Commando and Mercs if you're familiar with those ones. I'm very fond of Mercs and think this has a similar quality, but I struggle to say that it's better.

For some of the things that it does clearly do better, it's got very detailed sprites and animations, the controls don't rely on button mashing and let you hold your direction of fire while moving, there are more moves like a tactical roll and a dodge attack, there is a selection of characters with different abilities, and there are way more levels. The game does a lot of things very well.

I can't help but feel like the game isn't as polished, though. Like either the developers relied on the fact that you could just pump coins in the machine so it's okay if it wasn't fair, or they didn't consider different approaches. You have one boss which is a forklift with spikes in the front, so you might think to attack it on at its side, and the boss doesn't have any reaction to that. It still focuses its attacks in front. The game feels like they never really had an intended point where melee attacks were supposed to be useful, since the regular enemies better at retaliating to them than they are shots.

It also strikes me as thought it might be a little too excessive for its own good. In gameplay there are bunch of silly animations that feel like they're going for a similar tone to Metal Slug, but then you have shoujo manga-esque cutscenes which feel too tender to be in this game. While the game has more bosses than Mercs some of them are similar, like multiple tank bosses, so it feels more repetitive even if there's more variety in there.

3. Ninja Gaiden (Arcade)
Flawed - ★★☆☆ (2/4)

As opposed to the NES Ninja Gaiden game, this one was a beat em up similar to Final Fight which would come out a while afterward. This one strikes me as trying to be great before it tried to be good. I could go as far as saying it's bad but there are moments where it does look slick.

The big gimmick with this is that you have a climb button, which lets you cling to objects like ledges or platforms. When you're surrounded by enemies, hanging off something is a great strategy because you can easily kick in either direction and have knockdown power that you don't normally. There are sections where you have enemies coming at you from multiple horizontal planes and you've got to manuever around to get into the best position. There's a section where you swing around over danger. It's not always implemented well but it's cool when you use it.

But the thing is that the basic combat is just really bad. Final Fight worked because you were really powerful when the enemies are in front of you and had the tools to move them if they weren't, so it's all about controlling the crowd. Here you have the crowd of enemies but you don't have any way of hitting multiple at once or knocking them down quickly, so they all just swarm you and you're helpless unless you get a sword powerup that lets you knock them down one at a time. You have a jumping throw which is a lot more effective than your slow and unsafe normal attack and should be your primary method of attack at almost all times, but there are still enemies that can just kick through it, and you can't knock enemies down by throwing someone into them.

The backgrounds are kind of great in this game, though. Besides the gameplay aspects, which include not only climbing on things but items that are destructible when an enemy is thrown into them - you can't just punch open a box in this game - they also have a major Americana aesthetic to suit the concept of a ninja in the USA. It's a substantially sillier game than the rest of the series, with the levels ending with the ninja just kind of goofing off such as gambling with bunny girls in Las Vegas. I'm not sure if the Native American imagery included might be seen as offensive. The last level seems to be a big JoJo's Bizarre Adventure reference with images of the stone mask and pillar men everywhere.

4. ExZeus
Bad - ★☆☆☆ (1/4)

This one is a rail shooter originally released for arcades. You pick from one of three mechs with slightly different stats, fly through levels gunning down enemies with a set of different weapons and collecting power ups, go up against a big boss, then buy refills and upgrades for your bars.

To me, this game feels like something a student would have made. Not just the crude amateurish graphics and UI, but how it has a bunch of features thrown together but doesn't really have any idea of how to make them engaging. It's got that sense that the people developing it didn't have much experience and were just trying to learn and show off their growing skills, so they tried to include a checklist's worth of things with no real vision for the final product. Enemies are just thrown at you and bosses are indistinct. There's no identifiable enemy patterns to learn and react to.

I think this has limited lives, and it took me two tries to beat it. The first time I was too relaxed and let myself die if it happened, so I got a game over at the final boss. For the second I was making at least some effort to dodge and make use of my weapons if I was under pressure.

The only reason I'd recommend this is if you were really desperate for Star Fox for similar games and had exhausted any other options. Astebreed does most of what this game does and a whole lot more, and it does it all a hell of a lot better.

5. Avenging Spirit
Good - ★★★☆ (3/4)

This is a fun one, if a little simple and rough around the edges. It's an action platformer where the gimmick is that you're a ghost, and you can only fight by possessing enemies. It's kind of like a predecessor to Kirby, although you can't possess enemies at will, you need to die again.

Enemies are pretty varied despite only having one attack move; things like movement speed, jump high, and attack strength are all highly variable. The difficulty is surprisingly reasonable for an arcade game. The only thing that strikes me as off is that you get damage to your main health bar when you get hit while possessed, so you're kind of being encouraged not to switch bodies because you're getting closer to game over if you do.

6. Shock Troopers 2nd Squad
Outstanding - ★★★★ (4/4)

I had thought that this would be a very straightforward sequel, essentially just Shock Troopers with different levels, but I actually think it's a much deeper change than that. A lot of the changes were in line with my complaints for the first game, meaning that it pares back back some features which sound good but aren't that meaningful and instead polishes what it does deliver.

As far as the basic systems go, there are actually a couple of changes. The dodge can be replaced with a jump which works very similarly, although I think it gives you a little more control. Your powerups are a bit different, with your main gun leveling up now. Instead of having vehicle stages, you now can find vehicles in the environment which you can ride until they take too much damage, essentially the same as vehicles in Mercs but with charged attacks. I feel like more vehicles are worse here because they're very fragile.

The big thing, though, is that it feels like they've changed their approach to the contents of stages. It's closer to a bullet hell now. There are way more enemies and they're firing shots all over the place. Their individual patterns aren't all that bad, but the difficulty comes from the fact that multiple things which are shooting at you may have different patterns that are overlapping. For human enemies, they'll often paradive in closer to you and they aren't as eager to use melee attacks as in the first game, so there's a lot more opportunity to use melee attacks. The game's new scoring system also apparently rewards you a lot for melee attacks, although I didn't pay much attention to that myself.

While they've reduced the choices of levels, the levels feel a bit more creative here than what I saw of the first game. Moreover, the bosses are much more exciting and creative. I especially like how some of the bosses are things that you wouldn't normally be expecting to fight, such as the evil corporation's headquarters. There's a boss fight where a building is shooting at you and you're shooting back. It's great.

As for what negatives the game has compared to the original. There are fewer stages as mentioned before. There are also fewer characters, which may also explain why they dropped the character-switching team mode. The biggest thing, though, is that the game absolutely chugs. You can tell that the Neo Geo wasn't meant to have this much going on at once and so the game has tons and tons of slowdown. It's not even like a Treasure thing where there are particularly exciting moments where

The story is surprisingly serious despite it being such a cutesy game. It opens with your character being murdered. I think there are multiple endings depending on how many keys you find, too; I found one out of three, so I guess I got the bad one.

7. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid

Good - ★★★☆ (3/4)

Beat this one once in arcade mode - which I might have done last years too, not totally sure - and then cleared story mode.

The game seems to be targeting an experience similar to Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and the like, but with simplified controls more akin to Smash Bros. And, to its credit, it absolutely achieves that goal. Even with most of the characters being Power Rangers they managed to make them look and play very distinctly, leveraging alternate costumes to further that effect. The mechanics aren't particularly unique but there's just a lot of good in there. The movesets are good, the animations are good, the pacing is good.

I do find myself wondering if the idea is good, though. Maybe I'm assuming too much, but my first thought with the special moves being simplified to one button is that it's meant to be an easier entrance into fighting games. But can I really call this an easy entrance into fighting games when it's based on Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and its utter hatred of the neutral game? The very first opponent on story mode can take off almost your full health bar with one combo, and by the end of the story mode I still can't pull off anything close because I'm pretty sure I'd have to specifically practice individual combos to get there. I'm hardly new to fighting games, either, it's just that I haven't practiced these particular characters. Imagine what a rude introduction this would be to players who don't even know the fundamentals yet.

Arcade mode seems to be easier than story mode, and it's pretty much what you'd expect it to be. There's no unplayable bosses, it's just a series of rounds ending with a battle against Drakkhon. Story mode is probably objectively bad. I don't mean so much the simplicity of the mode just being a series of pre-arranged fights or its superhero movie-esque plot, those are pretty much all I expected from a Power Rangers game. But it's got so many presentation issues that it looks glaringly amateurish in what is otherwise a very professional feeling game.

To elaborate on what I mean. While the unique story mode art is fine and the dialogue is clearly going for a cool, quippy direction, it's written with the punctuation of a preteen who doesn't like real books. There are a few moments where the voiceovers don't match the subtitles. The game likes to give you one battle where you play as the heroes followed by a rematch where you play as the villains, which is nice since it lets you play as a wider variety of characters during the story mode. It also varies between whether or not Zords are enabled. But there's no screen to tell you these terms, so it can be incredibly disorienting. There are at least two points where there isn't even dialogue to separate them; as soon as you're finished one fight, you're immediately dropped in another fight where you're now playing as the character you were just fighting and fighting the character you were just controlling. Naturally, there were more than a few moments where I got confused about who I was playing as. The story mode will also sometimes end a fight before it's over for some reason, or it will have dialogue appear during the fight. The former is just another jarring moment, but the latter is especially bad because it doesn't even pause; it just stops your character's actions, so they can even be hit by a projectile because there's a dialogue box and you can't move. It's just embarrassing how many bad decisions there are which are local to this mode.

8. Psyvariar Delta

Good - ★★★☆ (3/4)

Beat this one three times with different settings.

Psyvariar Delta is apparently a remake of a fairly early bullet hell shooter, originally released a little bit before Touhou came to Windows and blew up in popularity. It feels a teeny tiny bit more approachable than most of the genre that I've played, albeit perhaps it's a little short and basic. The main gimmick is that you gain experience points when you get close to bullets, which causes you to level up and become more powerful.

I had fun with this one, but it's hard to call it outstanding when there's so little to it that feels unique or unusually strong, even just looking at what's available on the Switch. It has branching levels and multiple revisions, and it has two selectable ships plus one DLC ship, but then you compare those to what the Darius games available on the console are offering and it just pales in comparison. It's still a good game, but I'm just not sure that I could recommend it over anything else.

The thing that might excite me the most is the presentation. I don't feel that strongly about the original music, but the Delta specific music (which apparently includes tracks made for a mobile version?) is a great fit. I'm not up on my electronic music genres, but I want to say it varies between dubstep or trance? The opening immediately grabs you with the opening visual, which matches the building music with an increasingly rapid bombardment of neon light images.

By the way, the DLC vehicle you can buy is Blanche from Cybattler, who I don't think is particularly related to Psyvariar or is well known enough to sell copies. But I did love Cybattler when I played it, and this character does play like Blanche with a smart bomb, so I appreciate that it's here.

9. Rivals of Aether

Flawed - ★★☆☆ (2/4)

Beat the story mode, as in all of the character specific chapters and then the unlockable stage.

Honestly, I should probably rate this one higher. It's technically sound and it's a fairly robust package. But this kind of game immediately builds my antipathy towards it and it does almost nothing to break it out. It's not that I think there can't be games similar to Smash Bros., I've liked games similar to Smash Bros. well before this one was in the works, but it's that it's so specifically based on reproducing the Smash Bros. experience that I just can't view it as its own thing. The nomenclature, the musical identity, the menus, the colours, they're all screaming to me that this isn't just a game that came out of people inspired by Smash Bros., but which comes out of a specific subset of the fandom who find it easier to just make their own version of the game instead of appreciating that it can capture multiple audiences.

That's not to say that there's zero originality, but even then, I find myself scoffing at it a bit. Not so much the character movesets, since despite importing a lot of moves almost directly from Smash, the characters don't really tend to have strong analogues to individual Smash characters. But look at, say, Abyss mode. It's a level where you have to survive continuous waves of enemies are other threads while on the same set of platforms. Sometimes they'll have special conditions, or other missions like smashing circular objects that appear around the stage. It feels like it's just slapping together different Smash minigames and modes such as Multi-Man Smash and Break the Targets and calling it original.

The story does try to be distinct. My gut feeling is that it's ripped out of Avatar: The Last Airbender but I haven't seen the show to confirm. It's about a fantasy world where a conflict is created between different nations associated with the Greek elements. It's a humorless story which uses some serious language like "patricide". The thing that gets me, though, is that no other part of the game makes any effort to support this tone. Characters like Orcane and Wrastor look totally goofy but their stories are as dire as the rest of them. The stages as as bright and colourful as Smash is. They put in no effort to prime me for this sort of atmosphere, so instead of feeling that it's got a balance of cool and funny, I end up laughing because its attempts to be cool and reading to me as funny.

No matter how good it is, it just serves to remind me of Smash Bros. and make me want to play that instead of more Rivals of Aether. That's why I don't really want to give it a better score even if I think there's good reason to. There are just so many fighting games out there which are much rougher than this but I have way more respect for because at least I feel like they were doing something to stand out.

10. ExZeus 2
Flawed - ★★☆☆ (2/4)

With the original ExZeus being as bad as it was, I was fulling expecting to write this off as a terrible game. Instead I ended up liking it a lot. I actually feel tempted to score it higher, but it feels like it would be especially weird to do so after being harsh with games that are probably better. It's like the first game was just a tech demo and the second game was the actual product.

The game still looks pretty bad, especially the UI, but the gameplay has been heavily revised. The basics of them don't sound great. There's now only one playable character. The in-game shop now has attack, defense, and speed upgrades which are visible on your character. Your super attack is with cinematic attacks performed by selecting from a menu and which have to be bought from the store, which is probably the clunkiest decision here.

But the big thing is the levels. Whereas the original game seemed to be just filled with a bunch of enemies with no rhyme or reason, being hard to avoid threats simply because what's happening is unreadable, this seems to have tried its damnedest to instead feel like there are clearly events happening through the levels. They highlight some new enemy times with a close-up so that when they deliver one who is particularly frustrating, you can remember it and prioritize them. Sometimes they'll have sections where you're just grabbing powerups. The levels are huge and sprawling, and you'll turn around and fly through things as you progress.

The levels are broken up into multiple gameplay segments. The ground segments are sort of the equivalent to Star Fox 64's all range mode, where you can move in all directions and hunt down enemies. I actually prefer this one since it's slow moving, and so it's much easier to actually find enemies, although it's admittedly finicky - you'd think that it would trigger melee attacks based on whether or not you're in range to do them, but it's not nearly that consistent. It also sometimes has flying enemies which are tricky to hit, which finally gives a clear reason to use the lock on attack aside from just being extra firepower. Then there are a bunch of vehicle sections which each operate a little different, and the vertical shmup levels between the major levels. They can be clunky, but altogether it's actually a fair amount of variety within the arcade gameplay.

11. Mr. Driller DrillLand

Good - ★★★☆ (3/4)

I had actually nearly beaten this game last year without really intending to. Thanks to puzzle games being easy to play absentmindedly and the game being pretty short, I was just fooling around and suddenly I was nearly done. So this was an easy clear where I mostly knew what I was in for.

This is my first game in the series, but my understanding is that Mr. Driller's kind of an odd puzzle game where blocks that are of the same colour fuse, and if the combined blocks consist of more than four when they fuse or land after a fall, the whole thing disappears. But instead of falling down on you, the blocks are already stacked and you're just drilling down through them. Clearing blocks isn't ever the goal, at least in story mode, it's just something you deal with when you're digging as far as you can.

The game is kind of confusing to me because a lot of times it seems like the tactic is just to mash the button and keep moving downward. When you have limited air, it depletes by time, so trying to clear blocks when you don't need to find an air capsule would just be a waste. The risk is that maybe you'd split one of the blocks above you away from its footing so it drops on your head, but that usually seems to be manageable. It's not as addictive as other puzzles games but it's unique enough to be memorable, I think.

At least in the story mode, though, you rarely play the vanilla game. Each stage has gameplay changes which may turn off some of the standard mechanics and which add a different goal or threat. The best is probably the one based on Tower of Druaga, which is kind of an RPG-like mode where the game area is filled with enemies as well as power up items which can be collected and used from your inventory. Your air drains every time you drill in this mode instead of by time, so it encourages you to take it slow and think out your moves.

The game's got a cute, silly style reminiscent of Puyo Puyo or maybe things like WarioWare. It isn't a story-heavy game at all, but what it does have is fun enough. The best part is Taizou Hori, the hero from Dig Dug, being a dad on vacation. He's very enthusiastic about being in this amusement part and is obsessed about the gang getting points despite legitimately having no idea what those points actually do.

12. Hyper Dyne Side Arms (Via Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium)
Bad - ★☆☆☆ (1/4)

It feels a little weird to say, but I don't think Capcom had the expertise with the delicate gameplay of action games to pull off a top notch shmup at this stage in their career. It has a bunch of ideas for how to differentiate itself, but the realization of its gameplay are too rough to recommend, at least as I played it. It might be that the game is lot better with two players or at lower difficulty settings.

Essentially, it's a scrolling shmup, but you have shoot buttons to fire either left or right. You also collect different weapons which you can switch between with a third button, although you lose your equipped weapon if you die. A cool detail is that there are distinct sprites for each weapon, with the Mega Bazooka Launcher being as large as you are. Item drops can be shot to scroll them to different items, including a speed up and a negative speed up. There's also an item you can get which will fuse both player's robots - summoning them if you're only playing single player - which adds a shot that fires in all direction to whatever weapon you have equipped, and which lasts until you get hit and revert back to your normal form. There are actually two different designs depending on which player gets the power up, if I'm not mistaken.

For all this neat stuff, there are a few things that make it painful to play. The worst thing to me is that your normal speed is totally fine, so collecting speed ups just makes you harder to control, and when you're cycling through powerups every other one is a speed up. That means it's very easy to shoot a powerup and accidentally make yourself too fast, much easier than actually selecting the powerup that you actually want to get. I also think there's a general sense that the game is too chaotic and they don't really have a clear way for you to approach the challenge in mind; you'll just die because something pops out of nowhere, then die again on your next life because something else did. The worst enemy type are centipede-like machines, which home in on you, take forever to kill, and don't go away on their own. It takes a lot of focus on them to kill them, and meanwhile you're being swarmed by enemies every which way. Fittingly, the final boss is essentially just a bigger and meaner version of this one enemy.

I should probably also note that the Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium version actually has some altered sprites from the original game. It's pretty obvious that Capcom had Gundam in mind when they were making this game, and in fact they included certain Mobile Suits from Gundam as enemies, in particular the Zaku and the Z'Gok. They're redesigned in this compilation, presumably to avoid legal conflicts with Bandai.

13. Shinobi
Outstanding - ★★★★ (4/4)

Above all else, I found this to be a remarkably well balanced game, which is why I can't bring myself to give it a lower score even though it's not as exciting to me as other similar games. Being limited to one health point sounds intimidating, but the short stages and fairly predictable enemies allow it to be manageable. The enemies make the experience, since they actually have some variety in their behaviour which make them fun to engage.

There are some issues I find in the game, though. The difficulty curve isn't right, with some levels being remarkably difficult - at least if you're like me and don't like to make use of your ninjutsu - followed by a bunch of stages that are a breeze to go through. Later stages feel like they're more a matter of memorization gameplay which I'm not hot on. The bosses are kind of absurdly designed, with a lot of them going down pathetically easy when taking damage but having something else that you have to deal with first which is actually threatening. The shading on the sprites looks pretty bad and there's really nothing cohesive or interesting about the aesthetic.

I think the biggest thing keeping me from being excited about it is just that there have been so many similar games like Ninja Gaiden for the NES, Ninja Spirit, or Mystic Warriors that I feel like this just is kind of plain by comparison. It's not realistic, it's not over the topic, it's not futuristic, it's not contemporary, it's not historical, it's really just a ninja game and that's all there is to it. And while I do think it's really good, I don't think I'm going to return to this particular one again any time soon.

14. Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja
Bad - ★☆☆☆ (1/4)

I was originally planning on beating Raiden next, thinking I could quickly go through it before work, but I had forgotten that it's probably the game's rough Gradius syndrome that stopped me from beating it previously. So I settled on this since I didn't think there would be any difficulty credit feeding it.

Not to make a joke of it, but this game's pretty bad. It's apparently perfectly possible to beat it on one credit, but I certainly had no idea how to go about it, and it doesn't feel like anything that would be intentional. It pretty much just throws piles of enemies at you and that's it.

Of course, the main reason I'd have gotten it in the first place is because it's a zany meme game, and in that sense it might be okay, since it's got a certain amount of silly stuff in it. You get to fight Karnov, there's "NAMSHIT" written on a wall for some reason, some ninjas set themselves on fire. But it's not like it's Trio the Punch where it's totally worth playing through just to see what nonsense there is to find. It's mostly just a nondescript pre-Final Fight beat em up that hopes that if it just has enough content maybe you'll keep playing.

15. Raiden
Flawed - ★★☆☆ (2/4)

My understanding is that Raiden was what other shmups aspired to for a time. I do get it; the sprites are good, the music is good, it was filling the screen with bullets before Touhou existed and you could power up to match. There was a slight problem with my playthrough that I can't shake off, though. I just went with what seemed to be the default and went with the Japanese setting, which it turns out has a very significant effect on the difficulty of the game.

When starting a single player game in the original Japanese release, you find that every time you're hit, you're sent back to the checkpoint. It doesn't matter if you have lives left, you always restart at the checkpoint. You also find yourself without powerups. That itself isn't too bad at first - the game's still technically credit feedable, but it demands more skill than a lot of arcade games since you do have to successfully get to the next checkpoint to progress instead of being allowed to continue from where you left off as long as you have credits. The big problem is that while every checkpoint does have a powerup nearby to start you off, it also always has an aggressive group of enemies there, sometimes immediately in front of you, and generally in a trap formation which makes it hard to move without getting hit. If you die, you get punished again over and over. It's incredibly difficult to regain your momentum.

I did eventually manage to beat this, but by putting in a coin for the second player. I was hoping this would just allow the screen to scroll a little further through a section I was struggling with, but it actually completely changes the system so that you restart where you died and drop a few powerups that you had collected. In fact, the way that the international version makes things easier is by having the single player mode do this as well, although you're still sent back to the checkpoint if you run out of lives and have to use a continue. It makes the first half of the game much more sensible, but I ended up getting frustrated at the same place and beat international mode the same way.

Even putting the continue business aside, this is one of the hardest shmups I've played in recent memory. It notably isn't a bullet hell shooter in that while there quite a lot of bullets and enemies on screen, they aren't there for the aesthetic at all - they're all things that could realistically threaten you. You rarely just have one kind of thing to watch out for. Being fully powered up makes a huge different, but that's really hard to get to except through the pity full powerup items that the game drops if you die in the same spot a few times - which I don't like using, so I just avoided them when I saw them.

It certainly still has its merits, but with the amount of shmups that are accessible today, I don't feel any desire to return to this one or to get good at it. There are are plenty of other ones which are much less frustrating when you haven't yet mastered them, where I'd want to do better because it feels rewarding and not because it's unreasonable.

16. Hissatsu Buraiken (Via Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium)
Bad - ★☆☆☆ (1/4)

This is the Japanese version of the game also known as Avenger. For some reason there's no option to select the North American version in Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium, although one does exist. The Japanese version has all English text anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matter much unless there were notable balance changes.

Holy hell is this game bad. I haven't played a ton of Capcom's early work, but I suspect that this is in the running for the single worst game that they've released. I'd chalk it up to lack of experience, but this was by the director of Kung Fu, who you'd hope would at least know how to make a simple beat em up fun, if not particularly fancy. Additionally, this was after Commando and Gun.Smoke, so top down action games were something that Capcom had found success with before.

This is a single top down beat up with three moves. Your punch seems like your basic move, but it's probably the least used. It has the shortest range but it's the fastest attack by fast, essentially being spammable as fast as you can hit the button. You can also use it when moving. It's pointless in the stages where enemies generally die in one hit anyway, but for the first half of the game it's your main tool for damaging bosses, since you can quickly chew through their health by mashing the punch. It seems that later bosses are immune, though, so the punch becomes completely useless. If you find a ranged weapon, it replace your punch, but you can still kick normally if you want to conserve your ammo. Your kick is your main tool, which is slower but has longer reach and is possibly stronger. You also have a roundhouse kick which was originally performed by pressing both buttons. Various Final Fight clones have trained me to expect that this is a desperation attack, but it's actually probably your second most major tool. You spin around slowly in a circle while kicking, which is good for clearing out enemies that are rushing at you, but you do need to be aware that you might need to mash out since enemies are perfectly capable of grabbing you from the back.

The stages are relatively inoffensive, with most of the enemies being a single enemy type who grabs you and drains your health like in Kung Fu. There are a bunch of rarer enemy types who often don't make much of a difference a lot of the time. On the other hand, there are some enemies who there doesn't seem to be any convenient way to deal with, like the knife throwers in the first few stages. If you try to approach them they move further away, if you wait them out they'll be there forever. Their projectiles are fast and you're slow, so I don't know how reasonable it is to dodge them. If you see a door, you can break it down to enter a short timed bonus stage which might have nunchaku, kunai, or grenades for you to use, but those are limited usage and you can't bring them into boss fights so you don't really need them either. The stages are short as it is.

The boss fights are a nightmare, though. They're kind of puzzle bosses in that they're often immune to a certain kind of attack, so you have to think of the effective way to hit them. But there's never really a moment where it's safe to hit them and their attacks are too fast to be read or reacted to, so you're probably just going to eat their attacks. I think the worst might be the second level boss, who splits into three, with only one taking damage. Even if you know which one is the one that takes damage, all three can hit you and they take a lot of room, so they can easily trap you. The bosses' range is also longer than yours so if you do manage to get up to the boss he can just win out on range and you can't do anything. I think theoretically the best way to do it is hit the boss from back with rapid punches, but I don't think it's really viable. On the standard difficulty settings, I couldn't get through the second boss because even if I managed to get into position to start rapid punching him, he'd have eaten all my lives by that point.

17. Mad Stalker: Full Metal Force (PS1 remake)
Outstanding - ★★★★ (4/4)

I remember beating this game accidentally before when I thought I'd just kill some time, but I hadn't made note of it in my Backloggery account, so I figured I may as well do it again. It's a cult classic beat em up game with fighting game elements, maybe one of the really this angle. Apparently it was a major influence on Guardian Heroes. It's a Japanese only release but almost all of the text is in English.

This is a single plane beat em up, more along the lines of The Ninja Warriors Again than Final Fight. The controls are a mix of a beat em up and fighting game controls, which can be a little confusing at first. You don't have a jump button, but jump with up. You have multiple attack buttons and command special moves, as well as a super move. Your super meter drains automatically when it hits full, so it's best to use it right away. You also have a dash button, including a sort of air dash. It does have a little bit of the side effect that so much of the focus being on your attack options means that the enemies you fight aren't really that memorable since you're just free to go wild on them.

For some reason, I remember thinking the game was disappointingly clunky the last time I played it. I do think that the command inputs are sometimes a little hard to perform, so maybe that's part of it. But it may simply be that I wasn't making good use of my moveset. The game is pretty loose about chaining your combos. My favourite thing is that you get a little bit of lift from your air-to-ground beam rifle attack so you can repeat it at least half a dozen times in a row before hitting the ground, including chaining it out of an rising uppercut to just put an endless hurting on the enemy.

The bosses are framed as if it's a fighting game, although your mechanics are the same, which isn't quite how fighting games play. There's also a versus mode which plays out like a standard fighting game where you can use the bosses. As such, the bosses aren't much more powerful than you are, not even the final boss. I haven't tried it myself beyond watching the CPU play a few matches, so I don't know if it would be any fun as a casual fighting game to goof around in.

Since this wasn't my first time playing in the game, I went to the difficult settings and turned it up one. It looks like it was originally on easy, but the game's not particularly hard, if just because they throw a lot of health pickups at you. There might be unlimited continues too, but I wasn't dying all the time, so I'm not sure that I would have run out.

As an aside, this version is supposedly a major revision to the point of being essentially a remake. Before that you had a lot of ports, largely to Japanese computers and all being Japan-only releases. The latest release was on the Genesis, which only officially came out in 2020 somehow. I feel that I've heard people say that the PlayStation version is worse, although I wouldn't be able to say how, except maybe because it locks the options to play as regular enemies in versus mode or the bosses in the beat em up mode behind codes for some reason; you can't unlock them even if you beat the game.

18. Bonk's Adventure
Bad - ★☆☆☆ (1/4)

I had high expectations for Bonk. He's the TurboGrafx-16's mascot, I thought he'd be something special as a showcase of the console's potential. But while the game has its moments, for the most part there isn't a whole lot that impresses me.

The big thing is that Bonk doesn't feel like he controls that great. He needs to be moving a little if you want any horizontal movement on your jump. You attack with your head; if you're jumping, you're attacking up, and you can press the attack button to attack down or sideways. But they all tend to leave you very vulnerable. The dropping attack, the equivalent of the Mario stomp, leaves you unable to move for a while if you miss. One good thing I can say about him is that he can do juggle combos, although most regular enemies die in one hit so just gets in your way instead. The other good thing is that his invincibility is just his strongest powerup form, which are all on timers, so he can chain invincibility through grabbing a bunch of standard powerups in a row.

Most of the levels are pretty blase. There aren't a lot of heavy jump puzzles. Instead, the difficulty generally comes from having a ton of enemies, who tend to be fast moving and difficult to react to. Some of the things strike me as not working how I instinctively think they would, like how the waterfall areas let you stand on a few moments on the water and then plummet. Sometimes there are little design elements that are just baffling to me. Like, there's one stage called the Bone Bridge which is literally just a single bridge which falls down. If you walk on it and fall, you're at the end and the level is over. What's the point?

The bosses are kind of a mixed bag, but probably good for platformers, to be honest. Bonk's ability to combo actually comes in useful there, and some of them can be pretty fun trying to keep the combo going.

There's some charm to the game, but the graphics are completely unshaded and thus feel pretty crude in an unintentional way. But most damning is the music. Everything seems to be just a tiny loop only a few seconds long, so they all quickly become grating.

19. Two Crude
Flawed - ★★☆☆ (2/4)

AKA Crude Buster, AKA Two Crude Dudes. If you're not familiar, this game is essentially the successor to Bad Dudes by way of being a Data East game with similar gameplay and aesthetic. I don't think any of the major names are the same aside from the composers.

This game is basically better than Bad Dudes by every practical measure. There are more actions to perform which you seem to have greater control of, there are more detailed backgrounds, there's more enemy variety and they have more prominent abilities, the bosses are more readable, there's more of a clear setting and attitude, there are more voice clips. But I think this is part of why the game may have ended up being less memorable. There's weirdness in the game, but it's largely fitting to the setting and it's clearly intentionally weird. The silliest thing in the game is the miniboss Psycho Santa who runs around and throws syringes out of his bag at you, but I'm not thinking "what the hell were they thinking when they made this" when I'm fighting Psycho Santa because when he appears he tells you that he's Psycho Santa. They want it to be a meme like all those Bad Dudes quotes are.

The basics of the gameplay are similar to Bad Dudes, where you're moving on one plane but there may be different layers to climb up on. There's no real combo system but there's also not much in the way of invincibility after getting hit. You now have an evasive roll and your attacks are you don't seem to vary between punches and kicks randomly anymore, but you don't have the spin kick. You might not have the charge punch either, I don't think I even checked. But the real big addition is that you now have a button to pick up things, and levels are chock full of stuff to pick up and hit enemies with. Steel bars and wires, cars and tanks, you can even pick up most enemies and throw them. The game still feels pretty clunky to me, but at least now it feels like there's more to it than just mashing the button and putting coins in.

The game is still set around New York, but this time a retro future where New York has been destroyed by nukes and is now controlled by a gang armed with cyborgs and mutants. Our heroes, Two Crude, are sent in to stop them. It's kind of funny to me that as opposed to the Bad Dudes, Two Crude actually seem to have some grounds to call themselves bad. The story suggests that they aren't really fighting to help anyone, they just like to fight and they're willing to work with the good guys if they're being paid. They're also really big. They tower over the regular enemies and even some bosses. It's not really good or bad, I just don't think is very common in beat em ups unless you have a selection of characters and one of them is specifically the big guy.

20. Tatakai no Banka (Via Capcom Arcade Stadium)
Bad - ★☆☆☆ (1/4)

This is the Japanese version of the game known as Trojan. Since I already played Hissatsu Buraiken and this seems like its spiritual brethren, I figured that I might as well play this one too. It also stars a protagonist named Ryu and is a beat em up by Takashi Nishiyama, although this time it's in more squarely in the vein of Kung Fu rather than being top down.

Mechanically, this is pretty squarely an expansion on Kung Fu. When you aren't disarmed, your punch is replaced by a sword and your kick is replaced by a shield which can block in all directions. An infinite amount of enemies are flooding in and you've got to go forward. Sometimes bosses are thrown at you. Your jumping slash and crouching slash tend to be some of your better moves as you might expect. There are also some jump pads at various points.

I would generally say that the game's better than Hissatsu Buraiken, but not by all that much. Mostly I think the mechanics go to waste. From the jump the game is too fast to reasonable respond to much, and blocking a melee attack doesn't do anything except defend against that one attack so it doesn't help you advance either. Enemies tend to spawn as soon as you've killed one, so fighting them doesn't make it any easier to advance. I've found that just spamming slashes at bosses seems to be the most effective way to fight them, but that's only because it's a totally crapshoot if the boss will do more damage than you.

Ultimately I think the game's in a bad place where it's too demanding to just have fun mashing buttons through but also frustrates your effort too much for it to be fun to learn.

21. Super Punch Patrol
Good - ★★★☆ (3/4)

I remember Beril being a regular on NeoGAF and being an overall nice, informative guy, so when Beril's involved I want to say nice things. So I might be overly lenient on this one.

In short, I think this is to Streets of Rage and Final Fight what Gunman Clive was to Mega Man. It's a game styled on familiar retro games with a nice sketchy filter that isn't particularly ambitious but has solid gameplay and a short length which makes it ideal for replays. A lot of the stages seem like they're more or less recreations of stages from classic beatemups, like the subway stage from Final Fight which starts in the station, goes through the train, then proceeds through the tunnel on foot. This doesn't really have much in the way of atmosphere, though, with the Streets of Fire urban hellscape element being exchanged from, say, fighting with clowns for no great reason.

The game follows the same balancing wisdom as Gunman Clive where it's reasonably demanding but very learnable, much more akin to what you'd expect from a console game than an arcade game that's trying to take your quarters. I feel that the controls are a little unresponsible, though, which hurts it a fair bit. Specifically grabbing feels unreliable, since it's a little hard to do intentionally and very easy to accidentally break. When I try to play it like Final Fight and throw enemies around to keep them in control, I often expose myself to more damage. The one original addition is a dodge move from double tapping up or down, which kind of feels awkward and tacked on to me for some reason I can't quite pin down. It feels like it takes too long to execute and there are a bunch of attacks in the game that absolutely demand that you use it because they come up so far.

Ultimately, though, the biggest thing preventing me from being too excited about this game is just how little we're hurting for a game that's trying to reproduce Final Fight and Streets of Rage on the Switch. Beyond the newer games like Streets of Rage 4 and Ninja Saviours which are pushing the genre to its heights, we also have easy access to classic games like Night Slashers, Armored Warriors, Sengoku 3 and what have you. I don't feel like there's a convincing reason to return to this game instead of the games it's trying to invoke, which is kind of a shame.

22. Rohga: Armor Force / Wolf Fang: Kuuga 2001
Flawed - ★★☆☆ (2/4)

I think I beat this before, but I didn't have it noted, so I went ahead and did it now. It's specifically the PlayStation port via the I actually did two runs, one on the PlayStation setting and one on the Arcade setting. Mainly I did two runs because I didn't actually know the difference between the two settings.

Essentially, this is mecha run and gun game. The big gimmick is that you can customize your machine, selecting either a pre-made set or a picking from individual options for the smartbomb-esque weapon, melee attack, and leg parts. You can select again after a game over. As an additional quirk, when you run out of health, you don't get a game over right away, but instead eject out of your machine and continue to fight on with a jetpack. If you get three powerups you recover your machine, but if you get hit once before you can do it you die.

Honestly, the more I play this game, the more negative I am towards it. I do want to like it; it was definitely trying to capture an authentic style. The customization gimmick is neat, and the story is about a mission in Australasia, which gives it sort of a neatly contained scope. But it's all held back by the Data East arcade approach where it's just supposed to wow you at a look and there isn't much thought put into making the gameplay attractive. The action feels very indistinct and unreadable, so it's difficult to appreciate fairly minute differences in ability between customizations.

I'm saying this as if this game is trying to impress on spectacle, but I also kind of feel like there isn't a great amount of that too. The sprites are all really well done and it does have big bosses any everything, but again, it's all kind of indistinct. The environment does change while you go through the stage, but there's nothing really that catches the eye in them. Similarly, the bosses are all just big vehicles of some kind and don't really invoke any particular images. There's nothing in there that can stick in my memory and allow me to say that, hey, in this game, this cool thing happened.

PlayStation mode adds voiceovers which feels good, but it does lead to sort of a weird contrast because it doesn't remove the voice samples that were already used. You've got these serious and stoic Japanese voiceovers from the military characters and then the overly excited English voice clips telling you that you're recharged your special weapon. It also replaces the soundtrack with one using real instruments, but it isn't an arrangement of the arcade soundtrack. I don't think the new soundtrack is terrible or that the arcade soundtrack is great, but the arcade soundtrack did have a banger for the first stage, and so the new soundtrack is worse off by not having it.

23. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
Bad - ★☆☆☆ (1/4)

For some reason, I thought there was a story mode, but I guess there isn't. I just beat arcade mode with Ren & Stimpy, although I'd like to try it with another character or two.

I had previously been tepid on Rivals of Aether because it couldn't escape the trapping of the competitive Smash community and has little identity of its own, but this game is probably even worse in that regard, since it has less originality without the same competence in execution. Rivals' movesets were fine, obviously taking some nods from particular Smash stuff, but the characters still managed to have widely varied game plans which I intuitively get a sense of. I understand why those characters are good additions to the roster. With Nickelodeon, after beating the game, I still have no idea what the difference is between one character or another or how I'm supposed to play the characters.

Then you have stuff like the character animations feeling really stilted, the lack of content, the pre-match dialogue being made out of generic sentences and being improperly punctuated at some places. The game just has this horribly amateurish feel to it. I remember there was a whole big deal about the game not having voices at launch, but at least now that they're there I kind of wish they weren't. They just make me aware that there's no real dialogue, and the sound bytes during battle quickly grate on me.

It might be that I"m being overly harsh on this one, but I can't in good conscience say that it's anywhere near as good as Rivals of Aether was, and I don't particularly even like Rivals of Aether.

24. Knights of the Round
Flawed - ★★☆☆ (2/4)

I know I had played this one a bunch as a kid, but I didn't remember if I had ever beaten it, so I did so now. In retrospect, I'm almost certain that I did, although maybe I've never bothered to watch the ending? That felt unfamiliar to me.

Closer to the time this actually released, I did like it a lot, but I think it actually left me with a poor appreciation of the genre for a long time. This was part of a wave where Capcom, seeing Final Fight's success, tried to make games with essentially similar gameplay without too many major changes. But inevitably those failed to fully understand what was so good about Final Fight, and so are kind of pale as imitations.

Take a moment to actually compare the two. Final FIght has a number of different moves with different utilities, like throws that bowl over enemies or a jumping knee that allows you to ease yourself into a combo, which add up to allowing you to react to situations and control the crowd to make the approach safer. Haggar has an extremely setup where he's the only character who isn't good at keeping regular enemies in front of him down, but he can do damage to bosses which is proportional to their HP, ruining them with an ease that no other character can. In Knights of the Round, characters have no moves that allow moving enemies around, and while you have a faster and a strong character they just have slightly different damage rates and struggle against the same things. In Final Fight, you had different weapons you can pick up which made it easier to keep enemies down for a time, with different characters being specialized for different weapons such as Cody having an extremely fast stabbing attack. With King of Dragons, there are no weapon pickups, with the closest equivalent being a horse which operates similarly for everyone.

Beyond that, I just feel like the game isn't that learnable, with some things just destroying you until you put in another quarter. Arcade games can get away with that, but I think good beat em ups encourage you to play well, even if they're simple enough to allow the player to just mash buttons and have a good time that way. King of Dragons is even simpler in terms of what you can do, but it's much more fun to play through that game and learn how to weave through the enemies' attack patterns.

Looking at it again, I do think they were putting some efforts into the backgrounds and cutscenes to match Final Fight's lived-in feeling, probably the best attempt of Capcom's fighting games, but it's a very brown medieval fantasy universe so it's hard to appreciate.

25. Rakugaki Showtime
Good - ★★★☆ (3/4)

It's not their best, but Treasure in their prime wouldn't let me down. This is nominally a fighting game along the lines of Power Stone, but with the simpler attack moves and greater focus on just throwing stuff, it feels more like what Super Dodge Ball should be. You're just constantly jumping around, grabbing things, and throwing things until either the enemy goes down or you do. It's simple, but I also don't really want it to be much more complex. It's definitely more along the lines of a party game than a competitive fighter.

The one gameplay complaint I really have is that movement feels a little iffy. Running around in slow, so it feels like the game is encouraging you to do the homing jump thing which can send you straight to an item you direct at with the D-pad. But that homing isn't totally reliable.

I only did one run, but there are a ton of characters to unlock in this, including Marina Lightyear. Much more characters than in a traditional fighting game, at least of this era, but it makes sense because these fighters are all much simpler.

26. Vanguard Princess
Flawed - ★★☆☆ (2/4)

I should probably be harsher on Vanguard Princess because it honestly seems like kind of a mess to play. But it's apparently essentially the product of just one former Capcom artist, and they're clearly talented at art, and I can't shake the feeling that I did something wrong that marred the experience. I'm pretty sure I have an older version so theoretically others are better.

To start with, the game is skeevier than I thought it was. I mean, I knew it was a panty fighter so of thing where it had an all female cast as something to gawk at, but even beyond the standard sexualized fighting game character designs, the support character designs go well beyond good taste. I think it would be totally fair to shelve the game for that purpose but I didn't think of that at the moment.

The gameplay seems pretty basic. It's got simpler combos, mechanics, and character gimmicks along the lines of Street Fighter 2, but the speed is completely different, probably closer to the likes of Guilty Gear if not even faster. The one unique distinction it has is your support character which is selected from a different pool and has a separate stock. The issue I have is that this doesn't feel to me like it's readable. The sprites are well done but having four huge characters on the screen going at hyperspeed makes it really hard to comprehend to just visually isolate what's going on, at least not in the limited time that I have to react to things.

Beyond that, the game just didn't seem that responsive. It took a while for me to figure out how to get a controller working, and I'm still not entirely sure how I did. There's a command list, but even after taking a look at that, I find that I'm not able to perform some basic motions consistently, and they instead get eaten up by some other input.

The plot also strikes me as kind of basic and nonsense, which I'm sure people might say is true for all fighting games, but I'm usually the type that gets into fighting game stories.

RetroFart · Jan 1, 2023

I think I will give this a shot

My goal this year though is to clean out some of the RPGs in my backlog so might be tough

52 Games. 1 Year. 2023

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