I finished my first playthrough, I will write a proper review once I finish one or two more playthroughs because there are a few things I want to test out first but here's a quick summary of my thoughts on the game.
The game is overall fine, nothing groundbreaking but reasonable solid for the most part. The weak point is the combat as 5e combat is incredibly shit and despite Larian's best efforts they could only barely improve it.
The final boss is one of the worst experiences I've ever had playing a videogame.

Played from – to: (2022-05-24 – 2022-05-29) – PC keyboard.
‣ 7/10 – Man treks through Yomi for some spectral pussy.
‣ Game Audio / Soundtrack - 8/10
‣ Graphics – 10/10
‣ Atmosphere – 9/10
‣ Main Story / Characters – 7/10
‣ AI – 8/10
‣ Ragdolls / Physics – 8/10
‣ Movement – 8/10
‣ Voice acting – 10/10
‣ Combat – 7/10
‣ Final notes: I did not expect this story to take the turns it did. What seemed like a generic revenge plot became a supernatural journey. Without spoilers I will just say: humans will not be the only enemies you fight. However, I must give Trek to Yomi props for subverting my expectations. Plus, I commend the game for having multiple endings, 4 in total as a matter of fact. Sadly, the ending you get depends purely on a singular dialogue option you decide to pick. In any case, I really enjoyed the artistic style this game took. The locations you go through are all impressive to look at and beautiful. Secondly, the voice acting is nothing but perfect, I swear they breed Japanese voice actors differently there. My only complaints are combat and lack of gameplay variety. At first you might find the combat hard, but once you master the given move sets it becomes a repetitive spam fest. Still, I found the combat fun, but it was heavily repetitive, and the presented gameplay loop became boring and overstayed its welcome. Overall, Devolver Digital proves yet again, that they are good at their job, when it comes to picking out unique and entertaining games. I found Trek to Yomi a unique experience with an interesting combat design and a decent storyline where you see your bland protagonist go through a mental and physical journey, where a choice must be made – whether to pursue revenge, love, or duty.

Played from – to: (2023-06-30 – 2023-07-14) – PC keyboard.
‣ 6.5/10 – Those yokai kind of thick though.
‣ Thoughts: Games like Ghostwire: Tokyo are the ones that make me question why I even bother doing side activities in open-world games. This is because, the map in this game is massive and absolutely bombarded with collectables and side quests. It is utterly exhausting to do everything in this game, but I did it. Why? Because my completionist brain deems it a necessity every time I boot up a new open-world game and make a 20-hour long experience last twice as much for no real reward besides a self-pat on the back. Yes, Ghostwire does not force you to dabble inside side quests too much, but I’m going to complain about them because they are too darn distracting. Besides that, the game was alright. It had a decent cast of characters with a captivating story that will keep most interested till the end. However, the ending is where it sucked most. It was underwhelming, dragged out with walking segments and simply unsatisfying with a conclusion shorter than your left toenail. I might seem harsh on this, but that’s because I truly did enjoy my playthrough more than I didn’t, but I can not ignore how mid some of the gameplay parts here are. Combat here is clearly one of the biggest focuses. The enemies are quite varied and have different health pools and attacks, however after a few hours it all boils down to mashing one attack and keeping distance. It is flashy and the hand animations are great, but once your brain gets tired of those it all becomes equivalent to shooting a bb gun at a tree – not impactful and dull. It kept me going for the 40 hours or so of game time, but it was never something I got excited to do in the end. The city and just being in it is what kept me playing and enjoying Ghostwire, and that is probably why I spent every minute doing absolutely everything. From hunting tanuki to finding every soul, I did it all, because it was more intriguing than fighting the same umbrella wielding slender men. Overall, this is probably going to be a pretty forgettable experience for most, but I understand everyone who really loves this and will continue to play it. Made me learn that Japanese snacks use a shit ton of red bean paste.

Bloodborne is arguably one of the PS4s finest exclusives. The gameplay is beautifully fluid and heavy, even after going through the same areas the gameplay never got old. The inclusion of trick weapons and the numerous play styles keeps the game fresh and is incredibly unique and original.

Although the story is like its predecessors, you get what you put in, to me it’s incredibly deep and well formed. Yharnam has a dark story to tell, with terrible Eldrich secrets to uncover. The game is a shining example of environmental storytelling, incorporating its level design intrinsically with its overarching plot.

The musical score, a standout being ludwigs theme is not only beautiful but a piece of incredible classical music. Boss fights are elevated to an extreme degree due to all of the things mentioned above working in complete tandem to produce one of the best Lovecraftian pieces of media since HP Lovecrafts novels.

Time for you to join the Hunt!

Please refer to @Nancyfly's review for a more detailed review, our thoughts are largely the same.
Nancy's Review

Only key difference: I had the added benefit of being able to open my inventory but 99% of the time it was only to discard loot and replace it with higher value loot ... This game works really hard to live up to its Looter Shooter genre by just drowning you in dogshit. Level 40 enemies dropping weapons worth 10% of the shit you found in a dirt pile on the way there, very cool.

Borderlands has always been a franchise I was pretty fond of. Many playthroughs of 1&2 were a core part of my gaming childhood and while I've played those so much that the thought of doing them again is dreadful I will always appreciate my time with them. Later entries have previously gotten weaker and weaker but still pretty good by my book. Seeing a new direction for the series sounded like a great idea, and Tiny Tina of course is one of the better characters. So I was very hopeful for this. Unfortunately I believe Tiny Tina's Wonderlands the weakest yet.

The premise of this is great. Borderlands 2 had some awesome dlcs and Bunkers & Badasses was the pretty clear standout. I have never had any interest in tabletop games but the way they try to translate it to the game is fun and a good expansion on the original dlc. The overworld is the biggest divergence from mainline and for the most part its a neat way to get across the map. A lot of optional dungeons you can do for loot or to collect shrine pieces which if you find all the pieces for a certain shrine will give you a nice bonus. But this overworld has a critical flaw with how it spawns enemies. You can punch them and they'll vanish but if you're distracted (they usually spawn really close) You'll get sucked into an entire combat arena with multiple enemies and no chance to escape. None of these fights are hard or worth the exp though so it is just a forced waste of time. This is especially annoying in co-op. They pop up so often that halfway through the game it had completely soured me on the concept of the overworld.

Speaking of co-op, oof man. I played the entirety of this in co-op with my boyfriend and I think the game would of been very boring without that but jesus christ I am not even exagerating when I said this game crashed on me probably at least fifty separate times over our playthrough. Nearly all of these crashes were upon me opening my menu. I'll tell you, playing an rpg and being too scared to open your fucking inventory was very annoying. I'm not sure what caused this but it definitely dropped my enjoyment considerably. Although, I can't really say Id have much better thoughts about it otherwise.

The combat in this is fine, it's mostly standard borderlands. Melee weapons get to be improved a little and now you can combine two classes of your choosing but I didn't get much use out of either. When battles are hectic and you have the right gear its a good gameplay loop, but thats typical for the series. You use spells instead of grenades which can be fun as well but its really a mix bag. There is a staggering amount of loot dropped in this game but basically all of it is useless. You can find die across the levels to supposedly increase your luck but these were almost always worthless as well. We got some pretty strong weapons now and then but everything is basically junk and only worth selling. But the prices for inventory upgrades and spacing out of vending machines just makes everything feel like a really unnecessary hassle. Combine that with levels and sidequests that just drag on and on, this was an experience that was pretty dull for most of its run time. What makes all of that infinitely worse though is that strangely so much of this game has like absolutely zero music? The bgm is just straight up non existent except for the same handful of songs in battles or towns now and then. It's really damn noticeable. Of course there is a bigger reason why all of these feel as long as they are.

The story sucks. Tina is great obviously and there's some fun performances from Andy Samberg and Will Arnett but wow man. There is basically a new character introduced every mission and all of them are very forgettable. The game did make me laugh out loud a few times but so much of it had me stonefaced. The humor of the first few games was dumb but it was the right kind of dumb and now with this and Borderlands 3 it just feels painful. The bigger this franchise has become (and especially in this with the absence of Anthony Burch), the writing quality has dropped significantly and his absence is incredibly noticeable. The side quests arent much better. Some are fun concepts like exploring a house while shrunken but most of them are just glorified fetch quests with you guessed it, more annoying and forgettable characters guiding you through. One saving grace though is that the levels from an aesthetic standpoint are really great, especially the dried out deep trenches - most locations look really pretty and fits the setting quite well.

In the end, I have a lot of negative opinions on this game, probably more than the positive ones so maybe my rating feels a bit generous, but idk. I can feel that they really wanted to try with this. There is some passion in there its not all just gearbox greed. That's what I want to believe, at least. There's a message from the devs in the credits that talks about tough development because of COVID. The message kinda reads like a copout, a little pleading face emoji to say please forgive us for not making a good game. I want to believe its genuine. Apparently this game sold well enough that its gonna become its own franchise. I guess we'll have to see.

Borderlands was a series that me and my dad played together a lot, and I have good memories of the times with him. We're not on speaking terms at the moment and quite frankly I doubt we'll ever be. In a way that sours all my memories, makes me sad to look back on them and know its never gonna be like that again. It can't be. Playing this with @Assenemy helped with that a lot I think. Despite the crashes and the dragged out levels and the dead silent bgm, I had a really good time playing this even if we had to make our own fun by making fun of what was happening or doing silly things like cancelling fast travel or going up an elevator without the other person. I will always be appreciative of this game for that. I look forward to the future of this series and making new Borderlands memories, as silly as it or they may be.

Thanks for reading <3

Trophy Completion - 79% (35/39)
Time Played: 36 hours 9 minutes
Nancymeter - 64/100
Game Completion #132 of 2022
October Completion #9

Zombies are not an original story, The Last of Us is. I have not played the second game so I cannot offer any “oh this was when the series was good” or anything like that, so this review will simply rely on what made the first game so good. It wasn’t the combat against the clickers that made the game what it is, honestly I’d call that the weakest part of the game, it was the interactions between the games human characters that make this such a timeless experience. Joel and Ellie’s relationship is one of the greatest in the history of the medium, you go from two strangers to a father and daughter within the span of a sub 15 hour game and it feels authentic.

Trekking from the streets of Texas through the snow and into Colorado all in the search of a better future for the human race without being certain of the outcome is the basis of their journey. And again, on paper that doesn’t sound like it stands out but Druckmann and crew crafted the perfect story in between with the two bouncing off each other as natural as could be. Whenever Ellie is in peril you can feel the invigoration of Joel’s paternal instincts kick in, you get angry, you get upset, you want to exact vengeance on all those who wronged her just like you were Joel.

The Last of Us is a perfect emulation of the human psyche in a situation that is ridden with peril in a world full of strangers and enemies.