Fucking incredible. As someone whose introduction to the franchise was 7 I almost put it down because I was too used to the turn based fighting as opposed to the beat em up style of the prior games, but I'm so glad I saw it through to the end. The story is incredible, each chapter throws another twist and turn at you and watching the whole thing unfold kept me on my toes for the entire playthrough. I still wouldn't say I've mastered the fighting mechanics but I managed to beat the game so I'll say that's good enough haha. Great game, would recommend.

Probably my favorite Pikmin game in the franchise, overall takes what I loved about Pikmin 2's caves and exploration and adds the satisfaction of playing with the revamped controls and mechanics. I will admit the game didn't have me on the edge of my seat in terms of difficulty (Except for Submerged Castle 2.0 that shit SUCKED) but it did really satisfy the completionist within me. This is the first pikmin game I've ever felt the urge to 100%, especially with the inclusion of every pikmin type + a couple new ones make me really really want to collect every onion. Although I completed the main story for this game I will definitely be returning to it very soon to finish up everything I still have left to do.

Technically this game improves on all of the mechanics in Pikmin 1 and 2, the AI is much better, the rally feature has been replaced with the new charge feature and you can lock onto your targets for more precise pikmin aiming and less accidents. Despite how much more satisfying it is to play, I really wish the game didn't hold your hand as much as it does. One of the biggest things I loved about Pikmin 1 and 2 was how the order in which your main goal could be accomplished was fairly loose, but in Pikmin 3 the game takes a much more linear approach and points you clear in the direction of each task (literally, there are arrows on the ground telling you where to go) which really took the fun out of exploring for me.

I initially thought that without the time limit from Pikmin 1 this game would be a lot easier to beat but boy was I wrong. Sure, the overworld in this game is easy enough to deal with and traverse but the real difficulty comes from the caves. Purple Pikmin are able to destroy a majority of the enemies but in the late game caves especially it's harder and harder to navigate the environments with the sheer amount of enemies and hazards you have to be wary of. It's very difficult to multi-task in this game as well so if a bomb rock drops on you or a bulbear starts chomping away at your pikmin while you're trying to do something else you're gonna have a real tough time getting out of that situation, especially with how finicky the Pikmin can be about when they wanna stop doing something. I reloaded my game several times just trying to get through one sublevel without losing all or most of my pikmin. While I like the dungeon crawling element and think it added something fresh to the game, I do think some of the caves went way overboard for sure, especially with the procedural generation it felt like sometimes you were genuinely shit outta luck.

Ok so I've been playing through the entire Pikmin series from the beginning in preparation for Pikmin 4, and as someone who knew virtually nothing about Pikmin besides what Smash Bros taught me (very little) this game was a lot more difficult than I ever would have thought. I actually ended up restarting my whole playthrough on day 9 because I was falling behind on ship parts so badly. Once I got the hang of the basic strategies and techniques though I was averaging on 2-3 ship parts each day. Still, the bosses in this game gave me a lot of trouble and I'd still lose a lot of pikmin to stupid things like drowning or accidentally leading my blue and yellow pikmin into fire traps. But you live and learn, and this game was a welcome challenge that I was not expecting from something which such a fun and goofy atmosphere.

In terms of gameplay, DOOM Eternal does everything DOOM 2016 did but 10x better. The gunplay is more satisfying, the increased amount of tools at your disposal allows you to play in a lot of different ways that you couldn't before. I sort of have a love/hate relationship with the story of this game though. I both like and dislike how much more fantastical they chose to make the storyline of this game, I enjoy being able to explore all of these different parts of the DOOM universe and take in all of the crazy environments and characters we're introduced to, but it is a stark contrast from the more desperate and terrifying atmosphere of DOOM 2016 and I really enjoyed nervously walking through the UAC hallways anticipating some giant beast to hop out and chase me down.

I'm pretty sure I actually started Portal 2 before Portal 1 but then paused midway through to play through Portal 1 because I had no clue who this damn talking potato was supposed to be. Anyways, really fantastic game that does a lot to expand on the already mysterious and fascinating world of Aperture Science the first game laid the foundation for. I really enjoyed getting to learn more about the background of the company and the characters within it while also being taunted and tortured by one of my favorite villains in the history of gaming.