What a fantastic Souls game! The combat is just the perfect blend of Bloodborne and Sekiro, and the level design was perfectly balanced to where I was always on edge but never frustrated with any given challenge. And some of the new ideas it brings - like steadily recharging your last heal or disassembling your weapons - are so good I hope FromSoft steals them. The only letdown is the completely linear world progression - you're never gonna accidentally wander into an optional area here, and it does make for slightly less satisfying exploration. But what the devs at Neowiz and Round8 have accomplished is nothing short of amazing, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the recently announced DLC and sequel.

What an incredibly fun 3D take on an amazing game. The music and sound and art style and level design are all just as satisfying as you'd expect from Team Celeste. Camera can be a little jank and I found myself climbing directly into spikes more than I'd have liked, but it's still an absolute must-play if you're a fan of Super Mario 64-style 3D platformers.

Groovin' skate game unfortunately held back by clunky combat and occasional jank design decisions.

It's more laid back with its combo system than a Tony Hawk title, but that also means it's levels can feel like massive spans of nothing to accommodate the leisurely pace of traversal. There's almost no shortcuts that reward skilled play like in Mario 64 or THPS, so you'll find yourself doing the same motions over and over to get to certain locations on the map. Ugh and why is there combat in this skating game again? By the end, I desperately wanted to opt-out of it since there's no reward for engaging with enemies and they just act as flies buzzing in your ear while you're trying to explore.

But damn it's also such a triumph to see Team Reptile realize such a massive game with their miniscule team. The soundtrack has been stuck in my head nonstop since finishing the game (2 Mello's "I Wanna Kno" especially), and it's awesome that they enlisted real taggers to create the 50+ graffiti logos for the Bomb Rush Crew. And apparently director Dion Koster mocapped all the dance moves!? It's such a clear labor of love that even with all the warts I can't help but recommend it.

Once you've played one Souls game, you've gained the skills to play them all. Except for Sekiro - fuck Sekiro. This game brought me back to all the rage I felt when first playing Bloodborne. Only by the end of Bloodborne, I felt competent at it and actually first tried a few bosses. By the end of Sekiro every new enemy was just as bad a slog as when I started.

I'm willing to admit that the game's still well-designed; it might just not be for me. I enjoy the exploration side of these games way more than the combat. Sekiro has a few good souls-y intertwining levels, but most are linear runs to the end with a bunch of annoying enemy groups. This is a game about memorizing animations in boss fights. That's never been my favorite thing in FromSoft games, but if you enjoy it then more power to you.

A bit of a let down after the first DLC - the story revealed nothing we didn't already know. There are neat new puzzle mechanics like changing the time of day, but I don't think the added confusion of trying to keep a timeline straight made for necessarily more satisfying puzzles.

Solid expansion on both the lore and puzzle solving goodness of the base game.

I picked up Civ V from a Steam sale a decade ago and put it down after an hour. But recently some friends encouraged me to try it again and were willing to tutor me through a game, and now I'm having a blast. It really is a dangerously addicting pillar of PC gaming history.

Wonderful evolution of the OlliOlli series with a more welcoming skill floor, higher skill ceiling, and more content than ever before. Great Steam Deck game, too. Perfect for perfecting a run in an hour before putting it away.

Solid entry into the Jackbox series with the surprise hit in my friend group being the "this has no business working as well as it does" Dodo Re Mi rhythm game.

Really neat gameplay concept brought down by aggressively bland writing. There are some bright spots (everyone loves the screensaver joke), but the game would benefit tremendously by cutting 75% of the script. It suffers from every character annoying you on the radio at all times as well as unskippable cutscenes where the boring writing just can't be ignored.

As for the core rhythm-action gameplay, I enjoyed it enough but I think the Devil May Crys and Bayonettas of the world might not be for me. I'm pretty slow at picking up their combo cues and feel myself button mashing more than anything, and that paired with the precision of a rhythm game meant my timing always felt inadequate (plus the reality of modern HD TV's introducing a noticable amount of input lag). And then the score judgements after every fight just make me feel like shit, even if I was getting A-ranks for the majority of my normal-difficulty playthrough. The combat also gets pretty hard to read in the late game, with loads of characters blocking your view on-screen and getting little info on enemy attack patterns amongst all the overstimulation. It's definitely something I could get better at (Kamiya always says the first playthrough is the tutorial), but I just didn't really feel the motivation to get better. I wonder if this was structured more like a typical rhythm game (just pick a song from a menu, no continue points, no sweat if you fail just try again) if I'd get more invested into it.

So after all the hype this received earlier this year, I'd still temper expectations for people who are rhythm fans but not stylish action fans. It really commits to its core concept which is why I respect the game so much, and at the end of it all I was left wanting more. Although just like my reaction to Edgar Wright's Baby Driver, I'm not sure if I wanted the same thing but with faster, more intense music, or the same thing but with a more compelling narrative.

This review contains spoilers

This is one of the most "mature" games I've ever played, in that it treats really awful and sensitive subject matter with so much tact and respect. Nothing comes across as exploitative or edgy - it genuinely hurts and haunts.

There's a scene with Angela near the end of the game that might be one of the most affecting things I've ever seen. Angela's story is already incredibly tragic - she's always confused when James meets her, almost infantilized by sexual abuse the game only hints at - but she's incredibly lucid when she denies James the comfort of "saving" her. Even mocks him for being more in denial than she is. As she turns her back on him and ascends a burning staircase, James remarks how inexplicably hot it is. To which Angela replies, "You see it too? For me, it's always like this..."

That single line completely contextualizes everything in the game, and I always get chills watching that scene. And then I watch the dog ending to calm down with some levity. This game really has it all.

Cute meme game with surprisingly deep lore. It's a bit tiresome with a slow walk speed in a game consisting entirely of fetch quests, but it's entertaining enough and doesn't overstay its welcome in the short run time.

Really cute short 'n' sweet puzzle platformer with light Metroidbrainia elements. Features stellar 2-bit visuals, 8-bit-ish audio, and some pretty modern design sensibilities that make it a must-play.

🎵Well I can't wait to tell you all about it now 🎵(he can't wait to tell you 'bout his new game)
🎵And I can't wait for you to hear me shout it out 🎵(he can't wait to tell you 'bout his new game)

Best skateboarding game, and the Steam release just means I get to play it all over again.

pizza pIIZza Piiiiiz z a a a a a

Jesus Crust what a damn good game