probably my biggest "i get it now" moment as a gamer tbh

every second of this is iconic, and i say this as someone who tried the original RE4 for about an hour before gently shelving it away as a game that had probably not aged as graceful as it could have. but now... now i get it, yeah.

y'all were right. Resident Evil 4 really is that game.

"Why are you so resistant to the traditional methods of separating a man from his soul?"

the thing about Bioshock is that everyone talks about it like it's this immaculate masterpiece of game design and narrative that'll blow your mind and when you actually sit down to play, it really fucking is.

Bioshock, to my mind, is to the fps genre what Resident Evil 4 is to third person action. a title so polished and well thought out that it unarguably inspires everything that comes after by its mere existence.

a gameplay so elegant in it simplicity it feels like a breeze to play through almost two decades later. mixing up plasmids with firepower remains a blast and rapture still is one of the most well realized locations in gaming history, with new secrets to uncover in almost every corner.

although it's plot twist often steals the spotlight, the whole narrative is incredibly well written and well acted. the characters perfectly emulate that sort of 60's speech pattern you seen in movies, and the whole visual artstyle immerses you in the time period. it's so surreal to me that there are people incapable of seeing the political commentary in games like these. a whole story about how rampant capitalism inevitably produces rampant poverty and gives rise to fascism. there's an entire building in rapture called OPTIMIZED EUGENICS!!!

Bioshock gives control to the players and asks them if they have what it takes to break the cycle, to act contrary to our own best interest, to care about the human life even when its more valuable to end it. a staggering achievement in interactive fiction and the way we interact with it.

a game betrayed by its own ambitions, there's certainly a lot in RE6 that's frustrating. the split narrative sacrifices almost any cohesion in the story, the gameplay elements from one scenario don't always translate well to the others (i found myself constantly wishing that Chris and Sherry had unlimited ammo from the get go, or that some of their enemies were regular zombies), or how the overabundance of QTEs has aged poorly.

...but i still found myself loving it, for some reason? i finished Ada's campaign yesterday and i've already restarted Leon's (the best one) today. it's weird, for all its flaws, there's a certain charm to RE6 that often gets overlooked in the big picture.

i'm a big fan of scary, survival-horror, "lock you in a place with a bunch of nasty monsters" Resi, don't get me wrong (RE2R ftw, always), but there's something to be said in favor on big, action-oriented setpieces, "the prologue has you flying/crashing a helicopter in the first 10 minutes like it's goddamn Uncharted" Resi.

this game has a very specific brand of fun that i happen to be into, and it stills looks and plays great.

really sad that this is volition's last game. not because it's bad, but because i had a ton of fun with it. performance issues on the ps4 and a lack of endgame content aside, it had a really likeable characters and a more sincere writing than i remember earlier saints rows having.

i remember earlier this year seeing gamers marvel at how the same team that developed the RE3 remake were responsible for the RE4 Separate Ways campaign, and i got reminded how most of them have absolutely no notion that the people who make games are professionals doing jobs, and if everyone got laid off at the first fumble, there would be no room for improvement - ever.

anyways, thanks for the good times Volition. ya'll will be missed.

i feel conflicted about AC Origins. on one hand, it's a beautiful, massive and brave vision of what AC could become. on the other, it feels a bit too ambitious for its own sake. the world feels so big that the sheer scale seems daunting, but at the same time we're given very little incentive to actually interact with said world. an overabundance of mediocre sidequests quickly makes you realise that the best option is to actually boost your level and focus on the main quest. the combat is fun to engage with once you actually have the tools to do so, but its semi-RPG systems don't quite come together as well as they could.

that being said, Bayek is one of my favorite characters in all of gaming and to see that the creed started out of two parents' unbearable grief was one of the most audacious lore choices this franchise has ever taken and i love it so much.

"In a world without gold, we might've been Heroes!"

probably the most well written and acted AC to date. a story about how we must take responsability for the hurt we put out into the world, one way or another. edward is a wonderful protagonist and the story is engaging. the experience is tied together by the naval gameplay, a masterclass in open world design and in-world locomotion.

only hampered by a few outdated gameplay mechanics and the modern-day section.

even years later, i still cried when i heard anne singing at the end

we give Kojima and Naughty Dog a lot of grief for making "cinematic" videogames, but for my money the letterboxes of The Evil Within are the most egregiously criminal case of this trend. it's stupid, and the game gets 10x better when you take off the damn thing.

this was interesting. a lot of resident evil vibes, with some psychological horror sprinkled through. on paper, it's rad as hell, but for me it never really coalesced into something truly special. mostly uninteresting characters in a very thin plot that's way too easy to guess. game runs on pure vibes, but the vibes are great, though. incredible visual design.