Assassin's Creed Valhalla
I did enjoy Assassin's Creed Valhalla but feel like it's a step back from the two previous games in the series. I'm from the UK so personally while it was cool seeing so many familiar places, I found Greece and Egypt far more interesting and also visually varied.
In terms of gameplay, this is now a full action RPG where stealth is an afterthought. You can still sneak into an area and take everyone out from the shadows, but combat is so easy now that it's always quicker to just run in head first and kill everyone.
In the previous 2 games (and generally in the series as a whole) if you were being attacked by 5/6 people, it would be time to run. You would be able to plan quick assassinations under a smokescreen and then a fast escape. In Valhalla, you never need to be stealthy, but you also never need to run. Just stand your ground and kill everyone.
This kills the variety in terms of gameplay, as most missions are go to X and kill Y.
The world is beautiful once again, but the UK in the 850s doesn't have a great deal of biome variety. Every region is more or less greenery, gentle rivers, wooden huts and stone churches. If you go north, you get the same but with some snow. Even the DLC, which takes you to Ireland and France, looks more or less the same as England. The variety found in Odyssey and Origins, as well as the fact both those countries are a lot less flat than England, makes them much more visually compelling games.
I also really dislike the fantasy chapters in the Assassin's Creed games (so I skipped the 3rd DLC because it's all fantasy) You do need to complete two fantasy regions in the base game (If you want to see the final post release DLC quest ending anyway) and I find them really jarring. I love these games for the historical settings, so having them make a hard turn into fantasy feels like having a random level in a Call of Duty campaign introduce dragons.
The moment to movement gameplay is still fun, and touring famous locations is still really cool, but the game would be better if it was half as long. It took me about 90 hours to beat, and I think I'd have been just as happy if it was half as long as that.
Pokémon Snap (N64)
I first beat this in the late 90s, my mum rented it over a weekend, but I'd not played it since then, so decided to run through it again over the last few days. I played this on my Wii, hooked up to a CRT, and it's such a charming little game.
I've not really kept up with the modern Pokémon games, but did replay Yellow and Crystal over the last few years, and I have a lot of nostalgia and fondness for the early generations. Pokémon Snap does a really good job of putting you into the natural habitat of Pokémon. I remember as a kid thinking how amazing a mainline game would be set in this world, back when those were still only 8bit games, and even replaying it now it evokes that feeling.
It's a really relaxing little rail shooter, short and sweet, a really fun game to blow through in a few hours.
