The Good:
- Insanely in-depth game mechanics
- Phenomenal voice acting
- Great music
- Compelling story and characters
- Fantastic gameplay

The Ok:
- Some very minor structural issues

The Bad:
- Not much

Conclusion:
I’m happy to report that Baldur’s Gate 3 fully lived up to the hype for me; this absolutely deserved Game of the Year (and I adore Tears of the Kingdom). It takes DnD (which I also love), and translates it almost perfectly into video game format. Seriously, the gameplay loop here is extremely fun and addicting, and it’s almost overwhelming how many choices you receive just in terms of combat. Presentation-wise, it’s almost flawless. The music is fantastic, the graphics are quite impressive, and the cinematic cutscenes are awesome. The story is fairly simple on its head (save yourself and then the world from Mind Flayers), but there’s enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. What really sets the narrative apart is the depth of the character writing, and the voice acting. Literally all of your party members are amazingly acted, particularly Astarion and Karlach, and they completely sell certain emotional beats. It’s also very fun to dive into their individual stories; I found a few party members a little boring (Wyll, Halsin), but enough were cool that I was more than satisfied. Honestly, I only have a few criticisms of the game (which is crazy considering it’s length). Firstly, it can be a little glitchy, particularly in Act III, but it’s nothing too bad. What’s more serious though, are a few structural issues. For one thing, Act II’s entire setup implies that you should do Shar’s Temple before Moonrise Towers, when in fact you’re supposed to bounce between them. I almost made that mistake before Googling it to make sure. Also, Act III is probably a little too overwhelming in terms of new quests; it can be hard to manage your time when you have 6 major active quest lines to complete, and they all seem urgent. Overall though, these problems are fairly minor, and I loved almost every minute I had with the game. I’m absolutely going to replay this multiple times. I love Baldur’s Gate 3.

The Good:
- Some really nice improvements to the formula
- Great presentation, from frame rate to visuals to score to voice acting
- Extremely fun gameplay

The Ok:
- The third act is a little rushed

The Bad:
- Doesn’t really innovate at all

Conclusion:
Spider-Man 2 is pretty similar to a lot of Sony sequels. Like Horizon Forbidden West, GoW Ragnarok, and TLoU 2, it looks and feels better than its predecessor, but the story isn’t quite as good. This isn’t even necessarily a bad thing; Ragnarok takes a minor hit on focused writing in exchange for an absolutely insane scope, which I think it succeeds at. Here, it’s still very fun and quite good, but there’s not such an obvious upside. To start, the obvious thing is that it’s just an absolute blast to move around. The traversal is probably the best part of this game, especially now that web wings make up for those times when you run out of building. It looks fantastic, and both the performances and music are similarly quality. The combat is as fun as ever, but I do have a few gripes. For one thing, I think the new parry mechanic is a little silly. Spider-Man doesn’t parry things; his whole THING is dodging. All this mechanic adds is slightly frustrating mini-bosses that can only be defeated by parrying. There’s also the fact that stealth feels like such an afterthought. At least in SM1 and Miles Morales, we had a lot of gadgets or invisibility. Here, the gadget count is much reduced and Miles’ invisibility is nerfed (and not relevant at all to the story). Still, combat remains pretty fun, so these issues aren’t a huge deal at the end of the day. What’s a slightly larger deal, however, is the rushed story. For the first two acts, it’s pretty good to great, but once the third act starts, it just feels like everything happens so fast. Peter doesn’t wear the suit quite long enough, which makes his entire characterization change feel a little unearned at times. Overall, though, I still really liked Spider-Man 2; it just wasn’t as good as it probably could’ve been.

The Good
- Gorgeous music
- Nice visual style
- Very engaging central mystery


The Ok
- Unpleasant stealth sections
- Some hints are a little too obtuse

The Bad
- Not much

Conclusion:
I’ve played through around half of Outer Wilds last year, but this time I was determined to finish it. I’m glad I did, because it was honestly a lot of fun. The central concept here is fantastic; running around in a mysterious time loop is awesome, and space exploration is always fun. The planets are all extremely varied, the world building is excellent, and the entire aesthetic is extremely nice. Most of the puzzle work is satisfying, although there were a few bits that I gave up and looked for the answers online (I probably wouldn’t have ever figured out how to get to the Twin Ash Project on my own). The ending was also excellent, and fits the themes of the game excellently. Really, the only part I strongly disliked was Dark Bramble; I feel like it puts undue stress on the player and adds no fun. I actually skipped the DLC because I heard it was similar in scariness. Overall, I still really enjoyed this game.

The Good:
-Legitimately one of the best stories in gaming
-Fantastic performances
-Stupendous score and presentation
-Generally fun gameplay

The Ok:
-Not much, although some sections are rather unpleasant to play through

The Bad:

-None

Conclusion:
The Last of Us is perhaps the most acclaimed game of all time, and it’s easy to see why. Right from the intro, you’re hit with one of the biggest gut punches in gaming, and things only ramp up from there. The story is relatively simple, but it’s through the characters that everything comes alive. Everyone from Bill, to Tess, to Marlene, and especially Joel and Ellie, feels real. Plus, the unreal voice acting and motion capture combine to make every cutscene an experience. It doesn’t look perfect, but it does look damn good for a game nearly 10 years old at this point, and the near perfect score helps matters too. I used to dislike the gameplay of this series, comparing it to a worse Uncharted, but now I’ve come around to it. Like the story itself, you need to be methodical, and make every hit count. The difficulty on Normal is just right, and everything combined to make be wonderfully immersed. Finally, the ending is perhaps the strongest of any game I’ve played, ever. The moral ambiguity of it all, the doubt in Ellie’s eyes, the blatant lie, and the cut to black are all phenomenally realized. Honestly, the only part of this game that I don’t like is playing through some of the scarier sections (the hotel basement, parts of Winter), although even those add to the atmosphere.

Left Behind DLC:
Left Behind continues the phenomenal presentation of the first game, with the obviously great performances, score, and gameplay. The story is split into two segments: bridging the gap between Fall and Winter in the main game, and a prequel explaining how Ellie and Riley got bit. The ‘present’ segments lack much story, but we do get some glimpses of Ellie’s fevered devotion to Joel at this point. We also get the new gameplay mechanic of hunters and infected interacting with each other. I love the concept, although honesty it’s only skin deep; throwing one brick and waiting is sufficient to make those encounters easy. The past segments are where the real emotional beats hit. Riley is likable, and the writing once again excels here. It all has an air of melancholy, as you know that Riley probably doesn’t survive, and that you’re seeing Ellie’s last day of real innocence. The ending is punchy, and leaves enough to the imagination for you to guess what happens next. Overall, I really enjoyed this expansion, although it’s biggest flaw is the fact that its length dictates that the real gameplay loop of the series just doesn’t have time to materialize. Still, I’ll definitely continue to replay this whenever I replay the main game.

The Good:
-Gorgeous presentation
-Phenomenal performances
-Really good combat
-A very engaging narrative

The Ok:
-Some technical issues
-Minor unwieldy game design

The Bad:
-Not much

Conclusion:
God of War Ragnarök, despite probably not being better than its predecessor, is still a really great game. To start with, it’s predictably one of the most gorgeous experiences you can find. The visuals are breathtaking, the score is superb, the voice acting is phenomenal, and the motion capture is pretty much perfect. My only real critique from a sensory perspective is that I experienced more technical issues than I was expecting to. Of course, the game was likely made with the PS5 in mind, but on a PS4 Pro, I wasn’t exactly pleased to find not infrequent slowdown, audio glitches, and once a full game restart. Still, I can forgive most of that, as I’m sure these issues are a non-factor on the PS5 version. The gameplay is obviously a highlight, and is an absolute blast. I found combat most of the time to be just the right difficulty, and on the whole it was hugely enjoyable. Unfortunately, the traversal isn’t that great. Climbing and rowing are too slow, and there are entirely too many crevices that you need to squeeze through. Of course, these design choices clearly serve to mask load screens, but at a certain point, they become almost as tedious.

Now, with the story there’s certainly a lot to talk about. It’s obviously much more ambitious this time around, which creates some mixed reactions. On one hand, the allowance for pure spectacle is increased massively, and there are some truly epic moments. On the other, the plot as a whole is less focused, which can lead to some pacing issues. Of course, the penchant for emotion is still there in full effect, and done very well. Unlike some other reactions I’ve seen, I actually quite enjoyed much of the ending sequence. While, yes, there probably should have been some cooler set-pieces in the titular Ragnarök, I think it worked quite well on the whole. My only concrete criticisms of the story are that certain elements are just left dangling. This would obviously be fine were this to be a trilogy, but this is supposedly the last entry in the Norse part of this franchise. I think it’s likely that a new game will be made eventually, but that’ll probably cover a new pantheon, and these dangling plot threads are pretty much uniquely Norse: Sindri’s resulting bitterness and Atreus’ search of the remaining giants, primarily. Finally, this is more of a nitpick than anything, but I do also wish that the postgame contained more unique dialogue. While grinding out the final activities, you’ll quickly run out of prepared stories, jokes, and riddles among your companions, and all too often you’re left with just silence. If nothing else, I’d have liked there to have been an option to repeat stories Freya hasn’t heard. Overall, Ragnarök, despite these numerous flaws, still a phenomenal game and experience. If you were expecting it to reinvent the wheel, you’ll be disappointed, but if you just wanted another quality experience like the first one, you’ve got it.

The Good:
-Beautiful presentation, from art style to music
-Fun combat
-Engaging central themes

The Ok:
-Very unimaginative open world and quest design
-Basic and forced stealth

The Bad:
-Almost all of the side characters lack any substance whatsoever

Conclusion:
Ghost of Tsushima, despite being a little overrated, is still a great game, and was well worth my time and effort. The most obvious thing to discuss is the presentation: it’s utterly gorgeous. The scenery looks beautiful, the lighting is immaculate, and the music is very good as well. The ‘guiding wind’ mechanic is genius, and very neatly minimizes UI and makes this game stand out. Character animations are solid as well, but only in cutscenes; they’re quite poor outside of cutscenes. Jin’s voice acting is very good, as are a few other characters’, but on the whole the performances are only alright. The gameplay itself is quite fun, albeit also a mixed bag. The standard combat is what got the most attention, and rightfully so; it’s fun as heck. You feel badass, and it’s simultaneously simple and complex. The stealth gameplay, on the other hand, is extremely simple, often to the game’s detriment. There are quite a few sequences where you’re forced to enter stealth, even when I would rather just kill some dudes straight up, and you’re punished for deviating from the script. This feeds into the game’s theme of honor vs stealth, which is also mixed. It can be very good, and lead to some truly excellent scenes between Jin and his uncle, but I dislike how it was handled via the gameplay. The entire dramatic effect hinges on Jin actively choosing to forsake the old definition of honor to become the Ghost, and yet… I find normal ‘honorable’ combat way more fun. Various characters telling me how wrong I was for becoming the Ghost had virtually no effect on me because of that, and I think this game would’ve benefitted from either a morality system, or a mechanic where stealth wasn’t forced sometimes. I also grew to dislike the fact that the open world design is extremely basic. Nearly every side quest follows the same exact pattern, and nearly every open world activity began to feel like simply another check in a list; this was an issue when there are so many activities. What’s also of note is that nearly every character aside from Jin, his uncle, and the main Mongol, felt like they had zero substance. They were essentially one-note characters, and grew boring fast. Despite all of those issues, I still quite enjoyed this game; it’s a polished open world adventure that I may replay in the future.

Iki Island DLC:
This DLC is pretty much more of the same, which is kinda both good and bad. For one thing, it’s another good bit of content. Several new types of quests were introduced, which was a welcome change from the monotony that I came to expect from the base continent. The story was also cleverly linked with the main story in a way I appreciated, and ended satisfactorily. It also gave some much-appreciated more animal petting mechanics, as well as some cool cosmetic references to other Sony games. However, this is no Frozen Wilds from HZD; the story is a little short, and I found the new enemy types a bit frustrating. Still, this was worth exploring.

The Good:
-Phenomenal presentation
-Superb gameplay
-Quality side content
-Very polished

The Ok:
-Some very odd story beats
-An over-reliance on the Batmobile

The Bad:
-Some truly abysmal boss fights
-True ending locked behind grind

Conclusion:
Batman: Arkham Knight is in many ways the absolute best of the franchise, and by a mile. Visually, it continues to look cutting edge, even to this day. The music slaps, the voice acting is great, and the sound design is very good. The gameplay also offers a lot; combat is predictably amazing, and stealth is genuinely fun. Adding to this, much of the various DLC is quite solid, with some quality bonus missions, awesome suits, and fun little Arkham Episodes. However, the various issues this game presents cannot be overlooked. For one thing, the identity of the eponymous Arkham Knight really wasn’t the shocking revelation that Rocksteady was hoping for. It was painfully obvious the it was Jason Todd, and lying about that fact in the marketing compounds the issue. Then there’s the Batmobile. I actually don’t mind how it controls; the tank battles are actually fun. Still, there are way, way, way too many of them, including two separate awful boss fights. The Arkham Knight and Deathstroke tank bosses are easily the least enjoyable part of the game, for different reasons. The AK boss is just frustrating, while the Deathstroke boss completely and utterly wastes his character. What’s also annoying is the fact that completing every single mission is required to unlock the true ending of the Knightfall Protocol. It’s not too bad, except for the fact that “all missions” includes the Riddler trophies. There are way too many of them, and spending a solid 5 hours tracking down several hundred of these was absolutely not worth it. Speaking of, I just don’t like the ending that much. It’s almost obscenely vague, and leaves you without any real sense of closure. Regardless of its many issues, however, Arkham Knight succeeds where it counts: the gameplay. I’ll continue to replay this game every once in a while, if only for the sheer satisfaction the combat and stealth can bring.

The Good:

-Superb voice acting
-Great dialogue
-Immersive gameplay

The Ok:
-Constant backtracking
-Minor stuttering

The Bad:
-Weak ending

Conclusion:
I’ve had my eye on Firewatch ever since I first started browsing the PS4 store; it looked like a simple, short game with a great story. Well it finally went on sale recently, and I can’t say I’m not a little disappointed. In its defense, Firewatch does a few things very well. The voice performances of both main characters are outstanding, and the naturalistic and fun dialogue really helps you to invest in these people. The central gameplay of walking around with a compass and a map was actually a little refreshing, although repetitive backtracking and getting caught on the environment did hinder that a bit. Presentation-wise it was pretty good. The art style was simplistic, but it worked, and the music was effective as well. There was semi-frequent frame-rate buffering, but nothing game breaking. Sadly, however, my biggest critique of this game is with its story. In the first two acts I was completely in; I learned of two relatable people, running from their problems, who stumble across a possible mystery. That’s a great premise, but the execution is completely fumbled. The answer to the mystery is very anticlimactic, and explained via a minute of dialogue. There are also a few unanswered questions, and a heavy feeling that your relationship with Delilah was just unresolved. I didn’t expect them to meet, but I at least wanted a heartfelt goodbye, or a promise to meet up later. What I got was an awkward phone call, a helicopter ride, and credits. That’s probably the point; perhaps the game’s themes hinge on the idea that sometimes life is life, and there’s no great resolution. Even still… I already knew that. I enjoy great stories partly because I like satisfying, emotional endings, and I’m well aware that those hardly ever occur in real life. In summary, I think it’s telling that the most upvoted post of the game’s sub-reddit discusses the disappointing ending.

The Good:
-Beautiful presentation and score
-Amazing combat
-Mostly improved gameplay from Zero Dawn
-Great voice acting
-Much improved character interactions
-Better side quests

The Ok:
-Some texture pop-in
-Some frustrating design choices
-An arguably lesser story than Zero Dawn

The Bad:
-Not much, really

Conclusion:
Horizon Forbidden West is the first game that I’ve actually both highly anticipated for years, and bought at full price. In all honestly, that was $60 well spent, as I absolutely loved my time with the game. It fulfilled a lot of the desires I had for a sequel to Zero Dawn, and while it makes perhaps a few too many missteps for it to be a masterpiece, it’s certainly a hell of a time.

Positively, the game looks and sounds gorgeous. Even on a PS4 Pro, the only visual hiccups I ever experienced were pop-in textures, and those never effected gameplay. Loading times are also impressively about the same as Zero Dawn’s. Not only that, but facial animations have actually moved past the uncanny valley at this point! That was a major point of contention with the first game, and in my opinion, it is complexly fixed here; character models look very good. The basic gameplay is also, obviously, very good. The addition of the shield wing and the pull caster are stupendous, and really add a lot to exploration. The new weapon types are mostly fun as well, to varying degrees. Even the new machines are awesome, with some even posing an actual challenge in late-game. I also quite liked many of the new and returning characters; dialogue is usually fun to poke through now.
The unlimited inventory was frankly a miraculous design choice, and I loved it. I also commend the creativity on the Cauldrons in this game.

Unfortunately, there are a number of arguable mistakes I feel that Forbidden West made. For one thing, the story just isn’t really close to being as memorable or engaging as Zero Dawn’s. I realize that the first game’s story wasn’t something that can just be replicated, but I think part of the issue was how superb the first game’s final act was, and how underserving this game’s final act was. I actually ended up liking the return of the Zeniths, although they certainly should’ve been fleshed out more. The only Zenith who isn’t completely one-dimensional is Tilda, and she just seemingly turns out to be nearly as crazy as the rest of them. Another misstep is how this game handles its economy. In the beginning to middle-game, the system works great, but in regards to late-game weapons, the entire thing just kinda falls apart. It’s frankly ridiculous to require so many specific parts from apex machines to perform one upgrade that must be repeated many times more for the rest of your weapons. The amount of legwork required is staggering, and pushes the player to turn “Easy Loot” on (which I totally recommend for late-game farming). I also must criticize the melee system. Zero Dawn’s melee was useless, to say the least, and while Forbidden West’s is a step in the right direction, it still isn’t great. For one thing, the Melee Pits are just poorly designed; the timing for these combos is WAY too strict, and 80% of these moves are too impractical to be used for any fight. Also, the fact remains that melee is only really effective against humans, and at that point it’s faster and easier to just shoot them with your bow. Lastly, I’m not really a fan of how there are now seemingly a dozen variants on any one weapon type. Less is more in this case.

Overall, and despite that long criticism paragraph, I still really love this game. I’m just a little frustrated, since Forbidden West makes a few mistakes that Zero Dawn arguably avoided. Still, this sequel takes enough steps forward that I have confidence that any further sequel (or hopeful DLC), will take the best of both worlds.

Super Mario 3D World
The Good:
-Rock solid performance and visuals
-Exquisite level design
-Great music

The Ok:
-A little unmemorable

The Bad:
-Not much

Conclusion:
Super Mario 3D World is a great time (as expected with any 3D Mario game). It’s a blast to play through, and looks great while doing it. The frame-rate never left a solid 60 during handheld, which was impressive. The visuals themselves sometimes looked beautiful, and other times looked unpleasantly plasticky. The gameplay is where the meat of it is (obviously), and things are mostly great. A multitude of power-ups keep things fresh, and there are quite a few moves at your disposal to make exploration fun. For the levels themselves, they really are a masterclass in level-design: things just make sense and everything flows. However, I struggle to specifically remember any one stage; there is a definite lack of overarching theming (as is the case with Galaxy, for example). Overall, this is a really great game, but it pales in comparison to most of the other 3D Mario games; Odyssey and Galaxy each blow this out of the water. Regardless, this is a quality game, and I expect I’ll come back to it at some point.


Bowser’s Fury
The Good:
-A miraculous blend of 3D World and Odyssey
-More inspired level design and ideas
-More great music

The Ok:
-Bowser himself gets really annoying
-The frame-rate isn’t quite as solid as 3D World’s

The Bad:
-Not much

Conclusion:
Bowser’s Fury is, frankly, just what I would have preferred 3D World to be in the first place. Of course I can appreciate linear level design, but nothing gets my gears going quite like sandbox Mario games. Odyssey is my favorite Mario game of all time, and so to see this expansion take inspiration from that does mean I’ll automatically love it. A lot is carried over from 3D World; the power-ups and art design are both the same. While the frame-rate does take an unfortunate hit sometimes, it’s made up for by the new bangin’ music. Bowser himself is actually really fun the first few times you fight him, but honestly that got really old really fast. Especially when you’re cleaning up the last dozen or so shines, it seems like he interrupts you every 5 minutes. That one factor single-handedly brings the experience down a bit. Anyway, other than that, this is amazing. I sincerely hope that a full 3D Mario game in this style is eventually made; so many things work here (just without the constant interruptions).

The Good:
-Beautiful visuals
-Creative puzzle solving

The Ok:
-Death animations take a bit too long
-The ending is just vague enough to not be satisfying

The Bad:
-Not much

Conclusion:
LIMBO is a game I’ve heard a lot about over the years, and honestly, I don’t think it quite lived up to the hype. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I played it, but it just wasn’t the masterpiece I was expecting. It does look and sound really great (I especially love the film grain effects. Plus some of the puzzle solutions were genuinely tricky, and rewarded experimentation. However, I still have my issues with it. For one, deaths are quite common, especially towards the back-half of the game, and every time you die, it seems like you wait just enough so that you get annoyed before you respawn. It made me really miss Celeste’s lightning fast loading honestly. Also, I appreciate the imagery, and the story is interesting, but I definitely think that it’s just too vague. When I ended the game, I just said, “Huh.” I had no way of theorizing what everything meant, because everything that I was given plot-wise was so little. In the end, I’d recommend this game still, although do not get it at full price.