"Guess you'd know, since your mum's a bitch."

Already beat the base game in the PS4 version, but recently revisited, did a shiton of sidequests and beat both DLCs for the first time so thought I'd give an "updated" review on this game.

To cut a long story short, it's still really great and actually a lot better than I remember. Decided to actually put effort into creating a good build for Geralt this time, going down the Forgotten Wolf route and focusing on Aard + Yrden signs, actually investing in Runewrights and the like... it made it a much better experience, the obvious intended way for it to be played. You really could just main the story and not pay attention to any of these things, but you'd be doing such a disservice to your experience, it is really worth the time investment and it's actually quite emotional putting the game down once you finish things with Blood and Wine. The updated visuals are definitely something to boast about as is the other additions to the gameplay that make the game a lot less janky than it was initially, particulary with the awkward camera angles.

Great game, intend on doing a Death March NG+ run for the platinum soon enough, so still many more hours to grind in this great, fantastical world.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception took what Uncharted 2 improved and destroyed it. Take, for example, the stealth mechanics. With Uncharted 2, the enemies didn't detect you within .5 seconds behind cover like they did in the first game. This game decided to go back to its roots and now the enemies can spot Nate behind cover in no time flat. Perhaps I just suck at video games, but a lot of the combat sections felt overly tedious. You could be almost done with one section and then it would feel like the game would spawn an enemy right next to you they would instantly kill you.

On a more positive note about the game's combat, it does feel good (for the most part). Both shooting and melee combat felt great, with the melee being the best in the series so far. Though, I can't 100% say shooting was fantastic in this game. At first, I thought I was crazy but the more I played the more I realized I was right. It's like enemies would absorb the shots and not take any damage. I'm not talking about the enemy types that are designed for that sort of thing, I'm talking about low-level grunts. I could headshot these guys and they wouldn't flinch.

Overall controls for Nate were all over the place. Sometimes, Nate felt great to play as. Other times, it felt like he had ice skates on. There is no in-between.

The story starts strong, but I lost interest in it about halfway through. To be honest, it feels like two different games after a certain point. The ending felt very rushed.

That's a good word to describe this game: rushed. Other aspects outside of the ending felt very rushed. For example, some cutscene glitches that were present here weren't present during the first Uncharted game. Little things like that could have been avoided if this game had a bit longer development time.

Uncharted 3 had the potential to be great but in the end, it was kind of a dud.

"Unbelievable."
"Yeah, it was."

Still the best game in the Uncharted franchise and peak Uncharted in general. Everything about this game improves on the previous three and then some, elevating the standard even higher than it has been. Not only is the gameplay refined, but so is the story telling and atmosphere.

One of the most emotional games I've ever played, and it packs even more punch having replayed the entire series consecutively back to back. The final few cutscenes made me shed a few tears, something games outside of Red Dead 2, TLOU1/2 and Telltale Walking Dead haven't largely been able to do.

As for the gameplay, I only really have one gripe, and that's that it isn't hard enough. Replayed this one on hard too and it felt very easy in comparison to it's predecessors. However, this isn't a complaint, because the combat is a lot more fun aside from the melee combat (which Uncharted 3 still holds the title for).

This game leaves me wanting more, beyond Lost Legacy, but Nate's story is over. I hope either Sam or Cassie comes back for Uncharted 5 if it's ever going to happen, because I feel like Naughty Dog is at the very tip of the iceberg with it's story telling when it comes to the Uncharted series. Sure, the other games are pretty solid, and I enjoy the stories in those too; but they do not come close to this.

Este juego hecho para que sientas nostalgia. Es un sentimiento muy bonito como lo es su tema principal: dejar atrás el pasado, que es el principal problema que tiene Nate, pero luego aprende que lo mejor es vivir una vida normal envés que ser perseguido por un camión blindado por las calles de Madagascar, en fin. TODO ES INCREÍBLE, desde la banda sonora (la mejor) hasta la sensación de disparar o escalar, pasando por lo fuerte y contundente que se sienten los golpes y los imponentes gráficos que dan vida a una narrativa redonda muy emocional (tenkiu Neil) que hizo a este videojuego en el exclusivo más jugado de la PS4. Gracias por todo Nate, te quiero.

"Better than pissing away three months in the jungle without a clue."
"Found the ships though, didn't I?"
"You couldn't find your ass with both hands."
"...and a map."

This game was a lot better than I remember being. There's so many good things I could say about this game ranging from plot to gameplay. It's so well crafted. I replayed this one on hard too, like Uncharted 1.

I thought this was a little easier in aspects but near the end it definitely got hard and still wishing I could save game in long encounters, but I'm glad there are some checkpoints where needed in the very long ones.

Solid game overall, definitely better than the first.

Pros:
+ unique 1-bit visuals ooze style
+ central deduction mechanic is singular in the medium
+ the murder mystery hooks you from the first minute
+ death memories are incredibly designed and full of details
+ the game tells a fully realized story in a handful of static scenes
+ supernatural elements add a lot of intrigue to the story
+ faces slowly appearing on the sketch serves as a smart guidance system
+ the three-correct-solutions design is a great idea
+ the guidance book is well-designed and mostly quick to use
+ clues can be gathered in many different ways and places
+ some murder scenes accept various causes of deaths
+ incredible sound design and voice acting
+ the game can be finished with any number of correct solutions
+ the soundtrack is tailored to each chapter and serves secret hints...

Cons:
- ...but is far too blarring for my taste and cannot be volume adjusted
- no in-game system to record clues and possible connections
- memories play out twice for no apparent reason
- ghost animations after a death memory cannot be skipped
- memories cannot be played from the book
- not all causes of death are identifiable without some guess work
- some victims' memories can only be identified via other death sequences
- not all people can be identified in a given memory if they are too far away
- the final chapter is a letdown and reveals nothing interesting

Playtime: 11,5 hours with the entire book filled. A few solutions were lucky guesses.

Magic Moments: Realizing for the first time that there are supernatural elements to the story. Finally identifying that one guy with the beanie hat who is in practically every memory. Guessing corectly which place some of the crew disappeared to on my first attempt.

Most Difficult Deduction: The name and fate of the circus strong man.

Verdict:
Return of the Obra Dinn is nothing short of a masterpiece. Lucas Pope careful, precise creation of not one but 60 murder mysteries is simply incredible, and there are enough smart design ideas here to fill at least three other games. While the journey across and below the ship to each corpse and their death memories can get a bit tiresome over the course of a playthrough, the audio-visual style more than enough for it with a unique look that oozes style. It is save to say that Obra Dinn will feel just as fresh and exciting in the future as it did on its initial release all thanks to its daring but detailed art direction, even if the story of its crew and their often violent demise can only properly be experienced once due to the nature of the game.

One complete journey on the Obra Dinn however should be absolutely mandatory for any fan of deduction games, Sudoku riddles, or players interested in the dangers of maritime life in the 19th century. You will not regret it.

Pros:
+ art design and visual style is one of the best ever created
+ incredibly realized, fully believable open world
+ size of the world has more than doubled from BOTW
+ movement through the world is a spectacle
+ important upgrades like the warp item are available early on
+ technical performance is mostly fine
+ untold amounts of things to do and secrets to discover
+ addition of caves noticeably enriches the game world
+ new abilities add a lot of new actions to the gameplay
+ ultra hand is an engineering marvel that works without issues
+ fuse system is easy to use and adds heaps of complexity to the combat
+ ascend mechanic is a helpful addition and just works
+ physics and chemistry systems have been much improved over BOTW
+ cooking system has been improved and many new modifiers affect the gameplay
+ Sages and their abilities are well-implemented and tied to the gameplay
+ Zelda's arc and plot revelations are highlights of the series
+ quests are more complex and varied compared to BOTW
+ story is better constructed and carries a greater urgency than in BOTW
+ Purrah is the best bae

Cons:
- controls are cluttered and take a lot of time to get used to
- ultra hand in particular feels cumbersome to use
- general game progression is copied from BOTW
- the depths are too empty and mostly disconnected from the overworld
- most shrines are too simple and too many are completely empty
- item management is time-consuming and needs more sorting options
- attaching items to arrows cannot be automated
- silver enemy variants are tedious damage sponges
- fights in the later game are zero-sum-games
- rewards for the bigger fetch quests are disappointing
- fuse system makes searching for treasure chests mostly obsolete
- shop prices are exceedingly high and rupees are tough to come by
- sensor is still difficult to handle
- musical direction is still great but mostly copies that of BOTW
- US dub is pretty rough (you should chose the Japanese voices instead)
- no accessability options
- final fight feels underwhelming compared to the size of the game

Playtime: 220 hours, 72% of in-game progress. Almost all quests finished, all armor acquired, all Bubbul gems acquired, all Sage's will acquired, all shrines and roots activated, 330 Korok seeds found.

Magic Moments: Entering the depths for the first time. Building a working flying machine and finding out I could control it. Entering the Korok forest again. Understanding the fuse system and using it to solve puzzles. The first finished Gleeok fight. Most importantly, finding out what happened to Zelda.

Best Shrine: Orochium Shrine (Courage to Fall).
Worst Shrine: Timawak Shrine (Against the Flow).

Verdict:
Nintendo have done it again: Tears of the Kingdom improves on Breath of the Wild in almost every possible way, offering a bigger, more exciting world, more secrets to discover, and a more engaging narrative to experience over the course of dozens, if not hundreds of hours of playtime. While the fresh gameplay options offer new, never seen possibilities to interact with the surprisingly large but beautiful game world, its quests, and puzzles, the ultra hand system in particular is a technical marvel that invites players' creativity in more ways than quite possibly any other game ever created. Even though the game is not flawless and issues like the cumbersome controls and item management, simple and short shrines, barren depths, and reused main quest structure should not remain unmentioned, the practically endless amount of incredible design decisions and memorable moments that Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Eiji Aonuma and their team at Nintendo have created here is nothing short of spectacular.

It is almost unthinkable where else the series could even go in the future after a game this fully realized, and I certainly do not envy the Zelda team's responsibility to create a rival to Tears of the Kingdom. But even if this is the actual endpoint for the series in terms of scope and scale for the time being, we should be thankful and glad Nintendo took a chance on one of its most beloved franchises and created this duology for us to experience. What a time to be alive.

This was a game I always heard so much about, praised and beloved by so many people that I told myself I would check it out someday. I was intrigued and interested to see what all the fuss was about, so I really wanted to enjoy this game, but as is the tradition with hyped up games, I was disappointed... or maybe this game just isn't all it's coked up to be.

Aside from the attempt to capitalize on the success of Telltale and fall short as an imitation that doesn't really add too much aside from a cool mechanic that gets old within the first 30 minutes of it's debut episode, I actually ended up having to make a list of things that really irked me with this game.

I'll start with the most painful... the gameplay. These episodic choice narrative type games are not big or famous for their gameplay mechanics, but it's very clear that is what was trying to be achieved here. Both introductions just being extremely painful, and I mean every free-controllable section was just dreadful for me to power through. Always having to find things and spending half of the playtime walking around in circles is not fun, not to mention practically every dialogue choice being wrong... even though at the end the reason for this does become quite apparent, it was very annoying earlier on.

I'm almost tempted to brand some episodes "break your analog stick simulator" because focusing on photos was THE most dreadful mechanic. I've always hated the use of forcing down on your analog sticks while holding them in place because it makes them extremely prone to destruction (GTA V yoga mission point in case) and here it was just too much that I almost felt like giving up then and there. As aforementioned, the rewind mechanic was cool but it's too repetitive and it doesn't help most of the game is centered around using it, after a certain point I stopped caring about undoing certain actions cause it really just pads out the runtime.

Narratively, it was incredibly predictable. The only good, honest teacher in a school of seemingly everyone being a piece of shit totally isn't suspicious at all, right? Aside from the fact I figured out the twist 2 episodes in? It was painfully generic. A lot of things were, but when the game starts shoving in your face "you should have seen this coming" multiple times in the final 2 episodes as if I didn't already was pretty insulting lmfao. It didn't help that every other character (except for the GOAT Warren) was either a piece of shit/selfish person or an idiot, making most of them (yes, even Max and Chloe) extremely hard to like. What took me out of it a lot was the endless pop culture references. I swear there were at least three mentions of The Beatles and way too many film references to count that felt more like it was trying to be relatable like "Hey! Look, it's that cool thing! We mentioned it, aren't we so hip like real teens?" Just fucking unbearable, sorry.

Yet, amidst all this negativity, I still have to give credit where it's due. There were some good moments, the finale wasn't too bad, objectively the best episode. I liked Warren, Max and Chloe were good at the start but started getting way too selfish for me to like them. Kate was a good character for what it was worth, I think the attempt and preventing her death was a good scene, one of the very few.

This is most likely my hottest take when it comes to gaming and believe me, I very much wish I could enjoy this game as much as others... but there's just too many glaring issues for me to look past and just forget about. I don't think I'll be playing the spin-offs or sequels any time soon. It's not like any good things have been said about them anyways.

"Don't make the same mistake. Be yourself. Be free."

A very long but also a very good game. Just shy from a full rating, though. Mainly because at times it does feel a bit too long and some things I think were either over explained or not explained much at all. I think I understood about 75% of the story, but that's okay - I still enjoyed it nonetheless.

I give massive props to this game for feeling very unique, both as an "open world" game and a game in general. A very unique style that I enjoyed experiencing. At times I felt as if the game didn't know when to end, though. Especially in the end itself, but the creative liberties make sense to piece together this story in it's climax. However, sometimes characters would explain things twice, often times things I had already learned maybe about a prior to hearing the same information again, which I felt was a bit excessive. One plot point I found extremely predictable too, regarding Amelia and Bridget, which was something I think I figured out at the halfway point of the game. Flawed story, but still enjoyable.

The gameplay itself was insane, something I didn't exactly expect from a game often dubbed "walking simulator." I actually had a lot of fun making deliveries, liking people's buildings/signs and interacting with the world. Normally, if this was any other open world game, this would have felt very repetitive - as the open world here and it's elements does follow the same generic rules most of them do, but somehow this game was able to make every delivery new and exciting. Venturing through the landscape and coming across BTs/enemies never made me groan (most times, which can be contributed towards large journeys and losing cargo near the end.)

Overall, a pretty fucking good game, though not something I think I would give a lot of replay value. Interested in a sequel, though.

This game is an absolute fucking masterpiece and all the hate it has gotten over the past few years is extremely undeserved. With that out of the way, the story imo is sooo fucking good. I think this game topped TLOU1 by a long shot. I loved everything about this game from the gameplay to just... everything. I hate finishing this cause it makes me feel empty but I'm definitely gonna go back for New Game+ and possibly attempt a plat trophy.

If you haven't played this and you feel iffy around the controversy, don't listen to the haters... this game deserves every piece of praise it got.