As someone who just plays this game for the campaign and doesn't care about PVP (to be honest I didn't even know this existed in the Diablo franchise until now) this is a super solid game. It's basically a AAA Diablo game on your phone for free. The combat felt incredibly solid and satisfying and the touch controls felt better than any iPhone game I've played. I never felt compelled to buy microtransactions in the 10-15 hours I put into this, and got plenty of great loot. I had a ton of fun slaying demons on the go.

Going into BioShock Infinite, the only thing I really knew about it was how it was very different from the first two games and also much more polarizing. I had a general attitude of "How bad could it be?" when I first booted this game up, and I had no idea that I was going to play a complete mess of a game that falls flat on its face with almost everything it sets out to accomplish. Before I get into all of that, though, I will give credit where credit is due and talk about how great and detailed the setting is. Not only is Columbia gorgeous to look at, but the floating city's steampunk elements mesh pretty well with the 1912 setting. That was the only thing about BioShock Infinite that I actually liked, though, as I found the rest of the game to be dull in terms of gameplay and frustrating in terms of plot.

In BioShock, the player pretty much had to use weapons and plasmids together in order to stand a chance against Rapture's Splicers and Big Daddies, and this was expanded on in BioShock 2 by placing a greater emphasis on mixing and matching genes in order to let the player experiment to see what worked and what didn't. Pretty much all of that was thrown out here in BioShock Infinite, because even with the occasional puddle of water or oil showing up in some of the game’s levels, the best strategy in every encounter is to just shoot the enemies. The guns do feel slightly better than they did in the other two games, but rendering plasmids (or vigors, as this game calls them) useless through the effectiveness of standing in one place and gunning everyone down made the gameplay loop of BioShock Infinite feel easier and more boring as it went along. The only vigor that I got any use out of was Return to Sender, and that was unlocked at the very end of the game, so you might as well never bother to upgrade or even use your vigors up to that point.

On top of the gameplay feeling much less engaging than the first two BioShock games, BioShock Infinite was a complete disaster from a storytelling perspective. The most egregiously stupid point that this game tries to make would be its attempts at making slavery and segregation seem double-sided, and that concept should be self-explanatory in how ignorant and irresponsible it is. Everything that the story tried to do involving timelines and "tears" just ends up making it feel even more bloated and incompetently told than it already was, and that especially includes the moronic ending that essentially exists to make Ken Levine feel really smart. I had zero fun with BioShock Infinite, and I find it really funny how the only real legacy that this game has would be how its fanmade porn apparently caused breakthroughs in 3D animation.

A few hours ago, I got back home from my two week trip to the UK, and one of the first things I did once I got back home was sit down and start playing Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. I ordered this game on eBay two months ago (along with Deadly Premonition and some Wii Remotes) after being intrigued by it for over a year, but it never arrived, so I was glad to find the game at a CeX in Coventry. It took me five or six hours to beat this game in two back-to-back sittings, but I really can't wait to go back and play it again, because Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days was an incredible experience that really felt nothing like anything else I've played before. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days has been polarizing since its release (although it has been reevaluated to some extent recently), and the main reason for that is its presentation. This game is a total assault on the senses, as it wallows in the ugliness and depravity of its titular protagonists by having the neon-lit Shanghai be seen through shaky low-res camcorders, pixelated gore and nudity, blinding amounts of bokeh, and discordant jump cuts.

The bold and experimental approach that Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days takes to telling its story of two awful men making an already bad situation worse and worse makes the game feel incredibly oppressive, uncomfortable, and flat-out nasty, and that makes the otherwise straightforward cover shooter gunplay feel so much more intense and visceral, along with the destructible environments, terrified civilians running through gunfire, and especially Mona Mur's terrific score being mixed with the game's mostly diegetic soundscape. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days was a phenomenal and relentlessly gritty game, and while I initially wasn't interested in playing the first game, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, I think I might actually give it a go at some point after seeing TV Hed PE praise it on Instagram two days ago.

Now, I know that I mentioned how most of my childhood was spent playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii in my last review, but despite the obvious hyperbole, I want to clarify that this isn't entirely true. As a kid, there were a number of games that I played to death, but the ones I remember sinking the most time into were the aforementioned New Super Mario Bros. Wii, along with LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and the Super Mario Galaxy duology. Out of those games, the Super Mario Galaxy duology have been in my life the longest, as they were actually some of the first games I remember playing (although the very first game I ever played was Super Mario Advance on my cousin's GBA). Despite how long they've been in my life, though, I never actually beat either one of these games until now.

This might be the nostalgia talking, but Super Mario Galaxy feels like pure magic. Despite Mario's movements being much more limited than in the other 3D entries, the game more than makes up for this by making the levels much more tightly constructed. The new gravity and planet mechanics inject the game's levels with a thousand times more imagination and creativity, but unlike something like the New Super Mario Bros. games, the constant new ideas in Super Mario Galaxy never feel gimmicky and instead add to the memorability of each level. The music in Super Mario Galaxy is arguably the best in the entire series, as Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo's beautiful orchestral score greatly adds to the game's grandiose personality.

As much as Super Mario Galaxy means to me and my relationship with video games as a whole, there is one thing that is holding me back from considering this game to be perfect, and that would be the lack of actual camera controls. Since this game is mostly played with a fixed camera that rotates around Mario, this leads to a lot of instances where depth perception is difficult to judge, and the camera even occasionally broke by being at an angle where I couldn't even see that section of the level. Despite this issue, Super Mario Galaxy is still a stellar game that holds a special place in my heart, and it is easily one of the best games in the entire Mario franchise, let alone one of the best 3D Mario games.

There are a good number of games out there that I never would have heard of if it wasn't for Backloggd, and Deadly Premonition was one of them. I found out about the game around the time I first made my Backloggd account, and I was interested in it because of how varied the opinions on it were, as well as how suspiciously similar the basic premise was to Twin Peaks. Since I love the original series and consider it to be one of my favorite shows (along with Twin Peaks: The Return being my all time favorite TV series), I became really eager to get the game, and after listening to The Woods and the Goddess endlessly and even making the Sinner's Sandwich at one point (it was honestly pretty decent), I finally got to play Deadly Premonition after ordering it on eBay a few weeks ago. Despite the amount of non-spoilery stuff I've heard about the game, nothing could've prepared me for Deadly Premonition, and it was one of the best experiences I've had playing any game.

A lot of people described Deadly Premonition as a so-bad-it's-good game, but I honestly thought that it was just a phenomenal game through and through. While the visuals would look bad on a PS2, let alone an Xbox 360, no aspect of Deadly Premonition felt outright bad to me as much as they were charming, and I even thought that the supposedly awful controls were fine (aside from the driving), although that might be because I just finished playing Resident Evil 4 and these two games have very similar control schemes. The highlight of this game was easily the writing, as it strikes a perfect balance between being bizarre, campy, and endlessly compelling, along with how it was all told through some great dialogue. It definitely starts out as a Twin Peaks clone, but after the first few hours, Deadly Premonition turns into something entirely unique in its surreal, twisty storytelling. Not only was the plot incredibly engrossing, but the characters were also incredible, and I especially consider Francis York Morgan to be one of the best video game protagonists ever. Not only that, but the music in Deadly Premonition was flawless, as practically every track perfectly encapsulated at least one aspect of the game and its many tones.

Out of all the aspects of Deadly Premonition, people seem to be torn about its combat the most, and I honestly thought it was decent. Even if the shooting mechanics were clearly riffing on Resident Evil 4, I really loved the atmosphere that these moments had, and they got especially tense whenever the Raincoat Killer showed up. Deadly Premonition is brimming with passion, creativity, and heart at every corner, and despite how it's not exactly an "objectively" perfect game, I wouldn't have it any other way.

The Last of Us is a narrative masterclass. Never before have I been so invested in a games story and characters. It does an incredible job at establishing the tone from the outset and reinforcing it throughout by littering the game with world building details in the environments, dialogue and collectible items. One moment you can be trudging through a dark, infested sewer, the next you can be gazing at gorgeous sunset vistas. Such contrasts give glimpses of hope for a better future in the bleak post-apocalyptic world. The dialogue itself is very well written and the voice acting is top notch, with there being strong performances across the board. This, along with the outstanding cutscenes, helps create that emotional connection with the narrative which makes it that bit more impactful.

Unfortunately, The Last of Us’ gameplay doesn’t reach the highs of its storytelling. It is by no means bad, but it just doesn’t quite have the same level of quality and polish. Stealth and combat encounters are both engaging, but they are quite simplistic with stealth primarily involving throwing bottles, shooting arrows and choking enemies while combat is a cover-based shooter with pretty average gunplay. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the gameplay, but it hasn’t aged as gracefully as its story with glitches, constantly bumping into your partner and enemies ignoring your partner who clearly dashed in front of them often breaking the immersion. However, the game is well paced, mixing up infected and human encounters with exploration and light puzzling to ensure the experience does not get repetitive. What’s more the online multiplayer is fantastic, with the tense, high stakes matches resulting in a really immersive, tactical experience.

Upon this, my second playthrough, of the Last of Us, I adored the story just as much as the first time and even though this time around the gameplay’s shortcomings were more prevalent, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with this unforgettable experience.

2013 Ranked

Since I thought that Bloodborne was incredible, my excitement for Elden Ring went from being nonexistent to being palpable very quickly. Although I've only completed one other From Software game before this one, I was still interested in seeing how they would take on the open world genre, as their games are known for taking advantage of their linearity through intricate level design. As it turns out, From Software's games were practically made for this genre, because Elden Ring takes the same design philosophy of their other games and expands on it vastly.

Elden Ring is a massive game in terms of both size and scope, as it features a huge, gorgeous, and varied open world that is filled to the brim with content. In my 59 hours of playing, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of the Lands Between, as there's a dungeon, sidequest, or boss in every nook and cranny of this game. The combat is also satisfying and feels great, and while I do prefer the faster, more aggressive playstyle that is encouraged in Bloodborne, I was still able to play in a similar fashion to that here in Elden Ring. The amount of variety in the game's weapons, spells, incantations, and armor sets is astounding, and it seems almost guaranteed to make everyone's experience with the game feel unique to their own playstyle.

Since this is a From Software game, it shouldn't be a surprise to find out that Elden Ring is a hard game, and while the difficulty level does feel challenging, but fair for the most part, the second half of the main game took a big dive in that department. Many of those bosses end up killing you in one hit, regardless of how strong your build is, and the levels leading up to them become more concerned with filling the screen with as many enemies as possible rather than being intricately or meaningfully designed. The back half of Elden Ring felt flat out frustrating and unfair a lot of the time, and while it was still satisfying to finally beat those bosses, it didn't really feel like the game was giving me a fair chance. I also thought that Torrent was generally really clunky, as fighting on horseback leads to a lot of missed swings and platforming is an outright gamble. Elden Ring also has a huge issue regarding repeated enemies and bosses, as there are Tree Sentinels and Godskin bosses all over the place, even if they are slightly tweaked with each appearance. Despite all of that, the amount of fun I've had and awe I've felt while playing Elden Ring made me love it regardless, and while it's undeniably flawed, it feels like a complete game changer for open world games as a whole.

FUN WITH BOOMERS, CANCER AGAINST ZOOMERS.

If you’re a boomer like me and dislike this ABC, SUSPENSION, ZELDA and SINK-O summoning shit, this game is not for you. That is - unless you got some friends to play with you with whatever actual fun decks you agree on.

If you’ve read other reviews on this game, you surely must have noticed complaints about turn length. That is because the most optimal strategies involve using the xyz/ pendulum/link/syncro nonsense to summon half of your deck in the first turn with cards that negate everything your opponent does. Seriously, everything: summoning a monster, activating a card effect, even taking a dump probably. It’s the most optimal way to play the game and also the most boring shit in the world. That said, it’s what the actual game of Yu-Gi-Oh! ™, unfortunately, has evolved into and not the fault of Master Duel specifically.

When it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel itself – it’s surprisingly fun. Not in a million years would have I imagined that I’d actually say that about a Konami game made post 2015, much less a free-to-play game. As of the writing of this review (20th Feb 2022), the F2P mechanics have been handled fairly. You can pretty much build any deck you want. You will run into a bit of a wall if you want to build multiple different decks quickly, but even then the game is generous enough with gems. With a bit of patience and some easy to do Daily/Weekly missions, you can get a lot of value out of this game without paying a single cent. Of course, this is Konami we’re talking about so it can (and I fully expect it will) change in due time.

Master Duel is very accessible – it’s meant to be enjoyed by the hardcore meta zoomer try-hards, returning old boomers like me who last played Yu-Gi-Oh back when the aforementioned zoomers probably weren’t even born and brand new players who don’t even know why someone would put their cards side-ways. The game has some basic tutorials that quickly introduce you to all forms of summoning, so don’t worry if you don’t know what this alphabet summoning and pendulum swinging is all about. I also like that by linking your Konami ID, your game progress transfers real-time and you can enjoy this game on multiple platforms hassle free.

That said, this game has some odd UI/UX problems. Nothing major but it’s the small niggles that add up and make for some frustrating moments, especially early on while you’re just coming to grasp with it. Also, the music is TERRIBLE. Probably the worst aspect of this entire game, so much so that I’ve had it muted since the first duel. Seriously, just put some tunes of your choice in the background instead. I’m also not a fan of the visual style of this game – it looks like a mobile game/Heartstone rip-off which was an initial turn-off but has since stopped bothering me.

OVERALL – PUT ON YOUR FAKE PLASTIC DUEL DISK AND GET YOUR GAME ON CUZ IT’S TIME TO D-D-D-DUEL!