Final Fantasy 16 is a seriously inconsistent game with many issues that will put people off. Its pacing is horrific, the open-world sections are dull, most of the sidequests are completely forgettable, and at many points it seriously feels like this game does not respect my time. However, the high points of this game are absolutely extraordinary. Some of the boss fights and story moments of this game are among the best and most memorable moments of any game that released in 2023. If you want to enjoy this game, you really have to trudge through a lot of boring busywork, even with the main quest. Considering this game took me 50 hours to beat (of which I think 35-40 hours was story-related content,) that is asking for a lot. However, if you are looking for a game that is a slow burn with its story that climaxes near perfectly, then I recommend this game.

For some ratings, they are more reflective of how I feel about the game rather than the quality. This is one of those. I did not like the opening of Resident Evil 7 at all, it absolutely broke me. The first-person perspective combined with the chainsaw was too much for me to handle.

That being said, if you're a fan of horror games and are not as squeamish as me, I imagine this game is utterly amazing. This just isn't for me, and I respect the hell out of this game for being so ballsy as to scare away potential fans.

Alan Wake 2 is a seriously impressive and inventive survival-horror game. It has by far the best story and storytelling of any survival-horror game I've played, and unlike its predecessor it also manages to be a super tense and uneasy game. Many times it is outright really scary. The combat is also strong, and I enjoy the puzzles too. My only issue is the game can be rather relentless during Alan's sections, and the balance of enemies and resources does not feel tuned very well compared to its contemporaries in the Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 remakes.

Halo 2 is one of the biggest messes of a game that I enjoy. The singleplayer campaign is ridiculously imbalanced, inconsistent, and yet fun. The usual pillars of Halo combat are still there: great AI, great weapons, great enemies, great (albeit inconsistent) missions. The story is also extremely good, easily my second or third-favorite story in a shooter. Co-op play is also still really fun, as per usual in Halo. However the game's difficulty and encounter balancing is astonishingly bad, especially on the highest difficulty where the game is borderline unplayable at moments. Those are what hold the game back from anything higher.

Ghost of Tsushima isn't a remedy to the malaise of modern open-world games as much as it is the single best iteration of it since at least Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. It contains a similar structure to an Ubisoft game, but does a lot to obscure the nature of the world around you unless you go out and explore it. This is simultaneously one of the biggest strengths of Ghost and one of the biggest failings of modern open-world games, and is one of many reasons why I love this game. The combat is also superb, it easily has the best combat of any open-world game not called Elden Ring.

Not as good as the first Ghostrunner, but still a strong trial-by-error action game. The challenge of the first game is preserved, and gameplay is improved upon. Level design, however, is a step down. Some of the middle missions are an absolute slog and seriously harm the gameplay tone. Overall though it's a strong package. However I ran into some issues with optimization, specifically CPU bottlenecking in some heavy action areas that cut framerates in half and made frametimes unpredictable.

Mass Effect 3 is a game of highs and lows. The highs of this game are the highest points of the entire franchise, while the lows are its lowest before Andromeda. However even with all of these highs and lows, it manages to successfully wrap up many story threads built up over the course of two previous games based on your choices in those previous games. That, I believe, is a triumph we will never see again. The main campaign is also much more interesting than Mass Effect 2's, and so is its combat. However there are so many flaws with this game that opinions can wildly swing from glowingly positive (like mine) to highly negative. Ultimately for me, this game concludes my favorite trilogy in video games. I have replayed this ten times. I love this game, even with all of its flaws.

Mankind Divided is a downgrade from Human Revolution in terms of its characters and writing, but a noticeable upgrade in terms of gameplay, emergent gameplay, side quests, and especially level design. That latter element in particular is probably this game's biggest strength, and it stands out considering how this was one of Human Revolution's weaker aspects. The game does feel rushed near the end, but my experience with Mankind Divided is one of love. I love this game so much, and wish Square Enix didn't blunt the game's critical reception with the preorder bullshit it pulled.

Human Revolution was my introduction to the immersive sim, and it's excellent. Combat and stealth feel really good. I also enjoyed the story and its characters. The levels really blew my mind when I first played, but upon subsequent playthroughs I've realized they're rather uninspired. They're good enough for an immersive sim, but definitely a far cry from the original Deus Ex. It also has far less emergent gameplay, which sucks. However the gameplay elements that do exist feel a lot better. I also think this game is an easier entry point for people than the original Deus Ex considering this game is much newer and much more approachable.