Day 1: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels.

Day 2: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels.

Day 3: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels.

Day 4: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels.

Day 5: Hunt squirrels, give wife squirrels. Meet God.

I last played Silent Hill in 2010 on a friend's PS3. I played the whole thing in one sitting, and not just because I wasn't sure when I'd get a chance to play it again otherwise (it turns out I could have very easily played it at home via emulator), but because it is a wholly engrossing horror experience.

As the initial entry, this is Silent Hill at its most rudimentary and that goes a long way. The world itself works on its on illogical level, some puzzles making total sense and others requiring logic leaps. Its very "video game" if you stop to think about these puzzles existing in the normal world, but Silent Hill is of course not the normal world. It is reality twisted until the skin rips, wrung until blood seeps from the wounds. The combat is simple, but still puts you on the edge of your seat. Things lurking around each corner that you'd rather ignore but at many moments must confront with what weapons and ammo you have. Each terrifying moment compounded by Yamaoka's pulsing and maddening score.

It is an agonizing (complimentary) ~8 hours, short and bloody. The limitations of the PS1 create an atmosphere unlike any horror game, the mystery of Silent Hill pulling you in as the town grows darker. It's a truly terrifying game even over 20 years later. Can't recommend it enough.

Finished my initial playthrough a couple weeks ago, but wanted to sit with it and continue a bit more before logging since it's true ending is unlocked after 3 playthroughs. I may yet get to that third playthrough, we'll see.

In the meantime, I really enjoyed my time with this. I hadn't played an Armored Core thoroughly since the PS2 and had only dabbled in Armored Core 4 a bit on PS3. Coming to VI I was practically fresh-faced to the series, but knew what I wanted most was a game more divorced from what From has been doing since Demon's Souls and I'd say it mostly succeeds there. It is clearly inspired in parts by their more contemporary titles, but is a definite departure which makes sense as it's directed by Masaru Yamamura, the lead designer of anomaly title Sekiro. I think this was for the best as it allows a different experimentation from what we're used to.

The game has a satisfying, challenging, and deceptively simple but addictive hook of a loop: build your machine of destruction and take it as far as it goes. If you hit a wall, then recuperate and build an even more efficient death machine that fits the job better. My personal favorite build was quick reverse-jointed legs with a pulse handgun in my left hand, a pulse shotgun in my right, the PILE-BUNKER always at the ready on my left shoulder, and some type of missile on my right. Pulse weapons quickly eat away at their impact meter while I dash all around, staggering them before lunging toward them, switching my left hand to the bunker, and delivering a massive chunk of damage to their impacted state.

Rinse and repeat for ~25 hours, add in some jaw-dropping setpieces and an unparalleled scale, and you've got Armored Core VI which is a pretty damn good game.

A throwback to brawlers like War of the Monsters and the Godzilla games of the PS2/Gamecube era. Just a total blast, so fun to play something this well put together. It plays better than what inspires it, even. The single player is short and sweet, only took me about an hour and a half or so. I think some might see that as a detriment considering it's roughly $25 at this time, but it has a robust multiplayer. After all, it's a brawler! My only real gripes are that unfortunately it's not very alive online. It would make for a killer couch game though.

Nth replay, one of the great monuments. Played the MCC version on original settings this time on Heroic. I really dislike the over-produced version from 343's anniversary edition. Encompasses a scale only surpassed by its sequels in both scope and level design. Each level is a realistic size, it pushes away corridor gameplay for a more free-flowing journey. The gunplay remains precise and satisfying over 20 years later, still blows anything near its release out of the water. Its only flaw I can think of is The Library, and that's mostly because it continues to kick my ass no matter how many times I've played it. This certainly will not be the last time I play this masterpiece.