Miles Morales improves on the 2018 game in every way. It tightens up the open-world bloat and tells a more compelling and better paced story. I have always found Miles Morales to be a great character and focusing on him feels fresh. I love the winter setting as well. Just a phenomenal game overall - I sincerely hope this sets the standard for superhero games moving forward.

My biggest and only real complaint is that it shows a lot of deference to police, which feels extraordinarily tone deaf considering the cultural context this game was released in and, you know, the actual actions of the NYPD. It feels doubly weird when this game otherwise makes a lot of great decisions w/r/t diversity and representation. From the constant praise of Miles' heroic cop father to a mission where you literally use police facial recognition technology to identify and subdue criminals, it feels jarring and it's not something that would typically throw me off. The 2018 game was way, way worse about this in retrospect, but it feels egregious in this game because it's clear they put so much care into crafting a vibrant and diverse cast of characters. I think this is something the games community needs to take seriously moving forward if games are actually going to become more diverse in a meaningful way.

Copaganda aside, this is one of the most fun games I have played this year.

I love games that could only be games. So many AAA releases these days could just as easily succeed as prestige TV or movies. NieR: Automata takes full advantage of the medium to deliver a moving statement on the importance of love, empathy, and hope. I didn't think it was quite a masterpiece; I found the themes way too heavy-handed (like if you had asked me to write a video game story after my second year of a philosophy degree) and the gameplay, especially during your first playthrough as 2B, started to become a slog. But I think the slog is worth it. I found the "true" ending to be incredibly moving. Also, the soundtrack is one of the best I have heard in the last few years. A very unique and rewarding experience.

I majored in religion and philosophy with a minor in classics, and New Vegas is one of my favorite RPGs ever. So this could not have been more up my alley. The art direction, concept, decision making, and story all work together harmoniously and make this an absolute delight for me. I loved it. But the pacing and controls are simply not good and hold me back from wanting to play it again. I suspect there are many who will either not try this or drop it after an hour, and that's a shame because it's an incredibly unique title. I'm glad there are people making games like this.

This is easily a top 10 all timer for me. I've been a fan of the series for a long time and I loved God of War 2018, but Ragnarök feels like a better title in every way. In particular, the character development and writing have taken an enormous step up from the prior title. Having recently become a father myself I was particularly vulnerable to Kratos' character arc, but I really think it's something special. I have a somewhat long list of minor complaints and this is far from a perfect game. If you didn't like the 2018 title then I don't think this will change your mind. But as a lover of the 2018 title this felt like everything I wanted and so much more. I can't remember the last time I was this engrossed in a game. I'm going to turn my attention to the new Zelda now, but I absolutely plan on coming back and tying up all the loose ends and doing a New Game Plus.

I've played through this series twice in full before now, but never back-to-back-to-back in quick succession. It used to be pretty clunky transferring your character over between discs and managing DLC and whatnot. Having everything in one package makes it feel more like one grand space opera than three separate entries. I love these games dearly.

ME1 is clunky and dated now, but it remains extremely impressive how well it delivers massive amounts of lore and worldbuilding details without ever feeling like an info dump. It prepares you perfectly for ME2, which used to be my favorite of the series. The combat feels great and the backstories of each member of your squad are varied and phenomenal. The whole game is basically one big recruitment mission though, so I found myself enjoying ME3 even more this time around. The stakes feel high and the heavy story beats feel well-earned. ME3 is a damn near perfect game in my opinion outside of the very end, which is an undeniably bland way to wrap up the story. Everything leading up to that final choice is brilliant, but boiling down hours and hours of choices and character building to three very similar options is a bit disappointing. It doesn't bring the game as a whole down in my estimation though. This is an epic story, one of my favorite RPGs, and I am attached to so many of the characters. I will always love these games and I hope Bioware can make something this good again.

I dearly love the Persona games so this one has been in my backlog for a while. It's a fun little puzzler with some interesting dating sim aspects. It seems like it would really reward multiple playthroughs and I would be really down for that (and down to give this a 4/5) if it wasn't so wildly transphobic. The Persona games have always been bad when it comes to queer representation and this game is one of the worst in that regard. It's a shame because these games are obviously queer and what should be a strong point of the games often ends up being a huge weakness.

I was blown away by Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Every element works in perfect harmony. The unique gameplay mechanics (two buttons, Ghost and Trick? Amazing.), Shu Takumi's clever writing, bold art direction, and banger soundtrack all support one another and build off each other's strengths. A perfect example of a video game that could only be a video game. Also, can't comment on this game without mentioning the all-time great video game dog, Missile. This has immediately entered my personal canon.