returned to the game and managed to play through some hunts with an friend during the "Return to World" event promoted by Capcom, still an freaking blast, excellent combat, incredibly varied and well designed cast of monsters, great visuals (although I don't really enjoy the art direction that much).

I still don't enjoy the mandatory tenderizing mechanic that was introduced in the Iceborne expansion, the Clutch Claw gimmick is pretty interesting on paper but if we are talking about execution in the other hand... the combat does turn repetitive and it doesn't take MH's combat to new heights in terms of freedom or mechanical expression. the obligatory story with it's unskippable cutscenes doens't really fit with this franchise as well which makes playing multiplayer with newcomers an pain in the ass, I still love the game for introducing me to Monster Hunter though.

my favorite entry in the series, the setting and atmosphere are phenomenal, the city is incredibly alive both in character and NPCs doing things around it, the writing and characters are sharp and compelling and I love the grounded feel this game has.

unfortunely there is not much to do in the actual open-world, you will earn lots of cash throughout the game and there is nothing substantial to spend, it's pretty much all style and design but zero substance to it.

the gameplay does have some quibbles here and there (the way Niko moves and the clunky cover system comes to mind) but the way vehicles behave here is really satisfying, it feels great to master each car's handling and the city's design so you can traverse it more easily, the shooting is also something that I also enjoy, the guns feel heavy and impactful to shoot, the way NPCs react to being shoot and pushed is incredible to this day.

overall an fantastic game and it should be appreciated more, the amount of love and attention that Rockstar put in every aspect of it is pretty clear, going to replay the story expansions now.

this is probably the worst 3D GTA game, the missions are incredibly difficult during the later stages of the game, most of the time you will get blasted or your vehicle will simply explode out of nowhere without any reason by the shotgun grunts, the missions themselves are also very repetitive, drive to point A to B during 10 hours or so.

the gunplay and driving are clunky as hell, just an shore to play for long hours.

one thing that I appreciate here though is how alive the open-world is, it was very impressive back in 2001 and it is still impressive even today, the amount of cars and people wandering the streets is very interesting considering the time not to mention the variety between vehicles, the soundtrack in both the radio stations and original to the game is also great.

I will not talk much about this Remaster since most people probably know most of the issues that this has, the updated visuals and lighting, new quality of life features such as the new map screen, GPS navigation and weapon wheels are all solid but yeah it absolutely butchers the original atmosphere and visual effects the original had, it's an fine way to play it but I will say to grab this on PC since there are lots of mods that fixes most of the issues.

one of the best platform games I ever played since Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze/Rayman Legends and the best Mario platformer since the 90s, it manages to hit the heights of these two games in nearly every regard, the levels always have something new and crazy to offer, the presentation is top-notch, the controls are tight, the new power-ups are all great, and the badge system allow for some creative decision making and playstyles on an otherwise standard platforming gameplay loop.

however some aspects definitely could have been better, the fact that two playable characters are locked behind an mandatory easier mode is kinda weird, just being an acessibility option to toggle in the options menu would sufice for some players who would like to play them without needing to make the game easier, the boss-fights are still very forgettable, Nintendo really needs to change these up in the coming games both 3D and 2D, re-using the same template across the 6 in-game worlds gets old fairly quickly.

overall Super Mario Bros. Wonder is one of the best 2D platformers ever made and made me more hopeful for Mario's future attempts in the 2D platformer genre, the solid and creative level-design, fantastic presentation and quirkness sucessfully brought back some of the energy and creativity the side-scroller games in this series previously had before the 2000s, an must-play for any Switch owner.

an gigantic step-up over the previous games, the amount of stuff that you can do in the open-world and the scale of it going on as far by including 3 different cities, the customization, the variety of missions, it's nuts that this game came out on the PS2.

the storyline and voice-acting are all iconic, also great characters and pacing.

overall this is an solid contender for the best game in the series, the amount of customization and variety is something that even the next-gen GTA titles failed to deliver, it still has some jank here and there such as weird ass animations and character models that aged badly especially compared to other contemporary PS2 games such as God of War, Metal Gear Solid 2/3 or Resident Evil 4 but nonetheless the overall art direction is still great.

pretty much an improvement over GTA III in basically everything, in-game map is more interesting, storyline is more expansive and the main character is now voiced, more variety in weapons and vehicles, missions are more varied as well.

the music and atmosphere are fantastic.

unfortunely the game does have it's share of jank common in classic GTA games, some of the misisons are still frustating as hell but nonetheless an better game than GTA III by a mile.

excellent survival game, the presentation when talking about the art direction and sound design is amazing, the fact that the world is hand crafted rather than just slapping random generation aspects to it was fresh and memorable especially for this genre, straightforward survival and building mechanics means that all players can pick up and play this very easily, the progression especially is addicting and rewarding, reminds me of Terraria in how it guides you naturally to each goal and the game always keeps introducing something new even when the game loses the steam near the endgame.

it's genuinely terrifying though, if you have Thalassophia like me be prepared, the game is really beautiful though so I was entertained even when getting that extreme anxiety during those Leviathan encounters or the general empty and dark ambience.

the story is fine, the way it's presented encourage exploration and discovery but if you are looking towards an deep and thoughoutful narrative this is certainly not the focus that this game aims to achieve, I heard that Below Zero puts more emphasis on the story so let's see how it goes.

highly recommend giving it a chance, it's an unique and memorable survival game.

this is it, Remedy's best title, Alan Wake 2 screams originality and inventiveness during it's 20 or so hours of campaign, the story manages to engage the player in an way that is almost unbelievable, one of the best mystery/horror stories I ever seen in a long while, it's also beautifully voice acted and perfomed, everyone did an wonderful job.

the gameplay takes on an survival horror approach unlike the first game which was action centered, movement is more deliberate and slower this time around but they didn't sacrificed the tightness of the controls, Saga and Alan move around very smoothly, dodge mechanics works better, the gunplay feels punchy and satisfying (although there is not too much combat through the whole game especially compared to the first Alan Wake), it takes a lot of juice on the modern Resident Evil games so they couldn't go wrong with it.

inventory management is there, exploration is an must if you want to survive, enemies are very cautious and unpredictable, the classic survival horror experience that this game manages to get it right most of the time.

this game's presentation is absolutely stellar, the visuals were carefully crafted, the forests are very dense and atmospheric, the rainy NY City, the dark subway, it's absolutely incredible, animation work, FMV sequences and sound-design also deserve some heads, an unique and eccentric artistic presentation that only Remedy can do.

speaking about the issues I had with it are most directly towards on some of the polish in certain areas of the game, the UI is one of them, it's not bad per say but I think they should have done a better work of polish on it, the inventory screen comes to mind, dragging and drop items feels clunky, it's not as lightning fast or particularly smooth as like the Resident Evil 2 or 4 remakes for example, the investigation board during Saga's campaign is also very weird to navigate, some weird pauses whenever I wanted to switch between case files or placing clues, not an big deal but it was apparent.

had some glitches here and there as well, clipping through cellings when getting through doors or being unable to pick up certain items.

overall this is an fantastic game, it's by far Remedy's best title and it's miles above the first game that is not even funny, the carefully crafted visuals to the gripping narrative, Alan Wake 2 delivers one of the most creative and engrossing experiences that you can have this year, an absolute must-play for anyone who enjoys survival horror games or story-driven games, it's really that special.

solid third person/action adventure title, the gunplay takes a little while to be interesting but nonetheless it felt solid and satisfying all the way through, the powers are very fun to use and I enjoyed the Metroidvania inspired level-design, the visuals also look great and the art direction is very interesting.

the lore/universe is really cool but the actual story is a bit abrupt and requires a lot of reading through the game's files to understand, the characters are okay at best, the in game map screen is absolutely atrocious, there is not an way to swap between floors to see where you are currently, I got lost a lot because of this not to mention on how claustrophobic everything is to navigate.

nonetheless Control was an great time, one of the better titles that Remedy has, onward to Alan Wake 2!

good expansion, the gameplay saw some much needed improvements, bursting out enemy's shields is more faster, flashlight auto recharges faster, Alan sprints for much longer now, more weapon and enemy variety, the speed of the action is more exciting in general, it genuinely feels a lot better to play than the base game by a ton.

the storyline and atmopshere are both entertaining but it's definitely not as good as in the base Alan Wake, still an good time though, looking forward to Control and onward to Alan Wake 2 after that.

played through it before getting to Alan Wake 2 in the future, the atmosphere and narrative are very unique, these are easily the best things about this whole game.

the combat design is also good on paper but it misses the mark on some points, the guns feel satisfying to shoot, Alan controls well and I like the flashlight mechanic with the battery management standing out the most but taking down enemies's darkness shields takes an good while which in my view kinda ruins the flow of combat, the dodge mechanic is also very clumsy, the timing to avoid attacks doens't feel tight enough and if you mess up enemies will start to combo you to death, enemy attacks are also hard to telegraph and some of them even come out off-screen without an warning.

the dull enviroments are also an issue, you will often walk around in forests or abandoned mills/ghost towns.

overall Alan Wake is an very unique game that stands out thanks to it's great atmosphere and engaging narrative, the action elements are tight but the lack of polish on them in some areas often brings out boredom and unfairness whenever you are engaging into combat, the enviroments are often dull and lacks any variety, I would say to play one chapter per playing session and come back later for an more refreshing experience if you are planning to blast through this game.

nonetheless I enjoy it enough to keep going, looking forward to the DLCs and Control!

basically RE4 original but with some worse mechanics and even more absurdity in the action elements, it takes RE4's combat and fleshes out a bit more, it's still very satisfying like that game, bursting out heads and hearing those sounds is still the reason I play these games and I enjoy the increased variety of melee attacks especially when you manage to connect attacks with your partner.

speaking of which the co-op is genuinely the best part of this, solo play is very boring and in some parts very unfair in comparison, especially on those final chapters in the lab/tanker.

the presentation aged well in my opinion, the green tinted filter can feel nauseating but I thinks it fits the setting and tone that this is going for, the visual work also holds up well, character models are well detailed and I really enjoy the animation work, those cutscenes and the way monsters animate/move clearly had a ton of effort to them.

this also have tons of content as expected for an RE title, Mercenaries mode is an blast with all those different characters and maps, 2 solid story DLCs and more.

RE5 is not without it's bad points, while the combat system is more fleshed out than RE4 I do think some stuff got changed for the worse, the 9 slot inventory system doens't work well considering the game's fast pace, messing around with an real time inventory whenever you are full is not fun for an game like this, economy system is less satisfying, replacing an possible merchant character with the boring post-chapter shop is lame, I also don't like that they made specific animations for picking up loot, doing it like RE4 would have been better in my view.

overall RE5 is fine, I would say to play this only in co-op for an better and more fun experience, it's clear the game was made to be played this way, I think that this game will benefit a lot of the REmake treatment like RE4 received but keep the cooperative play and expand/change from there, they have the chance to redeem it quite completely.

an classic, the 2000s Newgrounds humor and art definitely creates an distinct charm to it that I absolutely adore, the soundtrack is awesome, fun boss battles, the controls feel good and is fun to play when things come together especially in co-op.

outside of that the rest kinda already aged especially compared to other contemporary beat'n ups, pretty much all the characters share the same moveset, weapons doesn't feel too different from one another, the levels don't have enough variety to them, enemies are messy damage sponges later on and some of the difficulty spikes essentially feels like an botched attempt to extend the game's overall playtime which already lasts for too long considering the repetitive combat.

I would love an sequel to this, I just hope I am still alive to see one considering that this game already has 14 years.

serviciable spin-off, the gameplay works fine enough for an quick classic third person Resident Evil playthrough, enemy design is mostly interesting, good atmosphere, story and themes are really good, definitely one of the better ones in the series in this department.

the rest is quite undercooked likely because of budget constraints, the gameplay felt dry in some aspects, combat has the special recipe that you can expect from most of the third person Resident Evil games such as melee attacks and staggering mechanics but most of the guns didn't felt satisfying enough to shoot, the weapon part system felt basic, the two playable characters didn't felt much different expect from the animations, weapons that they have/can found and melee attack, the other two sidekicks don't do anything special either, Natalia's ability is very interesting and some of the encounter design in Barry's chapters put them to use very well but that's about it.

the visuals aren't much better either, enviroments often look drab outside of the cool effects, there is lots of re-used assets and animations from RE6 even straight enemies from that game actually.

the Switch version runs fine, the framerate is acceptable and it has most of the DLC content is already available but my god are the loading times terrible, this game takes ages to load, even RE5 on the same console loads way faster.

at least there is the Raid Mode minigame which is an total blast, it's an shame that Capcom never made an follow-up or an separate game based on this game mode.

overall an fine effort by Capcom at the time, I think it would be very interesting to see an Remake of this in the future but with an actual budget and better gameplay with the same development team, the team behind this later worked on RE2 and RE4 Remakes so seeing this getting their intended vision plus the RE Engine, and with the experience that they have gained these past few years would be fantastic in my view.