It's baffling how out of the classic Doom games, only 1 is good. 2 Is too big for its own good, with a scale that does not fit the gameplay, and this one either falls into the same trap (it even just reuses some Doom 2 levels) or shoots itself in its own foot with new design approaches.
The shotguns have worse and lifeless reload animations, the overall redesign of a lot makes it feel like a cheap knockoff more than anything else and the atmosphere does not mesh with the game.
Levels are more confusing than ever, and they decided to adapt something from Quake - where you have to shoot buttons sometimes in respect to a 3D environment. Only you cannot look up and down like in Quake, so the game may ask you to find a spot where you match the height of the button and then shoot it. Good luck even figuring that out after wandering the empty halls in confusion for a while.
Rounded up with a final boss that is either ridiculously difficult or easy depending on if you found some secret levels. Seems like it is only a balanced fight when doing one or two of the three secrets, as otherwise you are either both overwhelmed and weak or underwhelmed and overpowered.

The -ideally- final installment of a 2000s FPS series that already displayed in what direction the developer would go. In our reality, it is not only a splitting point for Bungie but also for Halo, as 343 decided to further build on this game isntead of going back to Halo 3.
The campaign is decent with an unusual approach to grittyness for the series that works in execution, but I have to say the story isn't one of the greats. The premise of fighting an already lost war is delivered really well but the actual writing can fall flat and characters are mostly archetypes with their best scene being their deaths.
Gameplay works for the singleplayer, although melee is ridiculous in this one. Sure, Spartan IIIs are weaker than the Master Chief, but being nearly one-hit by the elite's turbo speed punch is insane. Almost as banal as Halo 2.
The weaknesses of the gameplay really shine in the multiplayer. It is an unfun mess lacking the beauty of Halo 3's abilities while failing to balance maps around sprinting, jetpacks and the other recharging power abilities. Add bloom to the party and you have a shit experience.
It is saved by forge and custom games, where it has some nice additions resulting in more fun modes.
Firefight also makes a return here and I can't say its either better or worse than ODST, as both have their strengths and weaknesses. Both are a fun time but there are far better iterations on that concept outside of Halo.

This was a little different than I expected. It was described as a "walking sim" so I expected to be carried through a surreal world on a narrow path. Instead I was confronted with few immediate areas and a whole lot more puzzle solving, with the main goal of finding as many endings as possible. In those endings, you determine the fate of the world, from obliteration to immortality. Which pretty much sums up that these endings, and with that the game itself, is concerned with life, existence, reality. It doesn't go particularly deep with any, but takes a look at so much while having a charming sense of humor a lot of the time.
It was a really fun and nice time figuring out as much as I could, giving me a night of horror and existentialism, and it will stay in my memory. I only wish it had more to show because got damn do I love the aesthetic this goes for.

Kind of really surprised by this despite nothing but praise. Really nails its cozy vibe and humor, and delivers a nice small world to explore that feels really big until you arrive at the beginning again. On top of this, I felt like I spent much more time in this one playthrough than I did, as by the end no more than two and a half hours have passed.
Gameplay works and is fun, not lacking in depth but not too complex, and I was really surprised by some well-realized minigames. It's also nice to have a 3D game in this day and age with fixed camera angles that work really well.
There isn't some big story, but there were some endearing characters and the ending did get me.
So yeah. Really good game. Can't go wrong with playing it.

The expansions are... nice? I don't feel like they heavily enhanced my experience as a whole, even if it was nice to have something new this time around.
Master Mode is at first nice, especially on the plateau, and works as added challenge for the minibosses and Lynels, but became rather annoying otherwise. For one, I am unsure if it was a good idea to both increase every monsters level and on top of that give them regeneration. Two, I don't know how to feel about the regeneration. Like I said, in the plateau it is great. With the limited resources, everything becomes a threat that is however still manageable. Exit the plateau, and with that have a larger arsenal, infinite bombs, stronger variants and lizalfos who will constantly evade, and it turns from threatening into annoying. The further you progress, it turns from a harder mode to a more annoying mode. In the Master Sword trial, however, master mode makes it frustratingly difficult. Or rather, stage one is made frustratingly difficult. Because it does impressive things like putting 3 silver lizalfos against you in a 90% water arena when you have awful equipment. In the other stages, you never have an arena as awful as this again but also better equipment. So it... feels very unbalanced. I guess the Master Sword trial on its own would have been a nice and fine trial, but it's not like I can change difficulty mid-game.
Straying away from the poor Master Mode and the Master Sword trial which would have been nice were it not for master mode, there are new clothing pieces I really did not bother to collect and the Champions Ballad. Which is also a mixed bag. The beginning is nice, refreshing and challenging. Then you need to go back to all 4 main areas and do three tasks that are mostly repetetive. Oh, you also have 16 new shrines which are... fine? Nothing special? Then, you rematch every titan boss with limited equipment. Which was at first challenging because of master mode but then you figure out the trick and it becomes boring again.
The highlight is, for one, more time with Kass, as he appears multiple times (its a Ballad after all). And two, the end. Where you get a whole new dungeon and a completely unique boss. And as a reward, a fucking motorcycle. It is insane and makes no sense, but it is a nice thing to have in the endgame where you have nothing left to do.

Overall, this isn't really too good? Master Mode was not really worth it and the other two major additions are nice but nothing necessary, and the fact the Ballad just reuses bosses kind of nags at me too. But it did not worsen the game, either. And if it did, you can basically ignore all of it with the exception of those new Oktorok chests and the fucking Nintendo Switch t-shirt.

Third playthrough, this time with DLCs and with that on Master Mode. I will not be going into the additions here and instead focus on the main game.

I was interested in how going back after Tears Of The Kingdom would feel, luckily this game is not really worsened. After all, this was a finished game, and not an incomplete version of what came out last year. The Plateau remains and absolute highlight in tutorial design and design as a whole, and is probably the stronger beginner area of the two games.
Otherwise, the game was as usual. A really fun time that maybe overstayed its welcome. If you have done all main quests and shrines, been to all major locations, it feels pointless to remain in this world despite multiple incomplete side quests. And obviously, there are so many small details that could be improved leading to an overall smoother and nicer game.
But the journey is so good. So fun. So impressive. Exploration is done masterfully and while there are no more discoveries, I still appreciate what is there and can fondly remember my first time.
One of the best open-world games of all time, at least of this size. It is impressive they managed to recapture this magic again.

A genuinely wonderful game. A vast desert, where your objective is on one hand exploration but on the other hand find out more about yourself. As Sable discovers more of this world, you further discover what her future will be, after the credits hit. Or maybe you do that. Maybe you see it as an exercise in freedom and are then overrun by having to make a choice in the end. These things are all plausible and viable ways to approach it from the game itself.
Now, there are technical issues with the game. Sound can get weird, loading issues occur on the fastest bikes and some objects can lack all collision. Frankly, none of those impacted my enjoyment.
With this striking atmosphere and this almost dream-like calmness and peacefulness of this world, it becomes a meditation of identity and self discovery to me. Gliding through those dune seas becomes a calming exercise and the scarcity of points of interest make all of them worthwile.
A freedom and childlike wonder, experienced one final time before you have to choose the path of your adult life. But there are things within the world suggesting that a choice is not final and set in stone. An angler turned vivarium keeper, a guard who sets to explore the world again after retiring, a famous poet once again uncertain about their destiny.
Sable embraces freedom, and finding ones destiny in life, but also questioning said destiny. It wishes the best for every individual, resulting in the best of communities.
It is no surprise that the only place with injustice and corruption is the only city in town. The biggest looming threats in this world, despite what should be a dooming apocalyptic setting, is the same threat of our world - corrupt law and capitalism.
Otherwise, this is a world that feels almost utopic in the calm and peace, especially considering its history and details. There a few fictional worlds where I feel like living in them would be nice. This is one of them.

5 games. All of them delivering something different, while all following a theme of imprisonment, an authority being uncaring or actively cruel to you, and terrifying industrial complexes.
The Other Side has a nice flow, setting up a solid premise and allowing you to slowly learn the gameplay, only to put pressure on you with a timer. The ending, however, is nothing surprising.
Control Room Alpha is the shortest of the bunch. As such, it has the most simple tasks, and beyond the very end nothing too interesting happens. The theme of an uncaring authority shines here, though.
Carbon Steel was my overall favourite. Telling you to do different tasks to extract a sample from an unknown entity three times, with increased challenge including a time pressure for the final time. It offers the most engaging gameplay, the until then strongest atmosphere and presentation, and two endings, although it is not really puzzling to figure that part out.
Concrete Termor delivers the aesthetically most impressive experience. It is the one that abbreviates from machinery completely, instead opting for simple concrete blocks seemingly stretching into infinity. You jump to three different people. Starting out as a citizen who is treated like expendable trash, to someone in a helicopter wanting to shoot citizens, to the third and final guy playing Battleship with the apartments filled with people against someone else.
Tartarus Engine, which was specifically made for this collection, goes back to emphasizing the machine complex. It is, after Control Room Alpha, the most barebones and uninteresting in terms of bare gameplay, but delivers a very strong atmosphere and has some interesting and fucked sci-fi and philosophical elements going on.

Overall, this is really great, especially for free. I absolutely do not regret playing these, and might even return to some of them.

In a lot of areas, this is really impressive. The co-op mechanics and AI are competent and offer a lot of room to craft your own approach, a lot of smaller details are really sick for a 2005 game and the presentation is usually great. For the longest time I mainly knew this from the trailer that was an extra in the 2004 Battlefront, which looked like the coolest yet scariest shit ever to a kid.
It has a more gritty presentation than is typical for Star Wars, both 19 years ago and even today, and it fits quite well considering the whole surrounding it.
I also want to appreciate here how after a abrupt anti-climax, you are treated to the most "early 2000s licensed shooter song" ever. Incredible.
While the gameplay works well and is fun, it also becomes repetetive. Entering the second of three main levels, you have seen everything the game has to offer in terms of enemies. The final main level does not provide anything new, instead just starts to mix the geonosians from the first level into the mix. It led to a situation where I was glad when it ended, even if it could have been sooner. Other issues with the gameplay are sudden insane difficulty spikes from time to time. Especially around the end of the first main level is one section that is cruel, and then the autosave is far behind. I tried this game the first time a couple years ago and in that moment that was so dumb to me I quit.
Still, I don't want to be too harsh to this since it is incredible considering what it is and especially for its time, and if I played this as a kid I would most likely highly adore it.

Quake 2 is ahead of its time in a lot of the things it does but mostly lacks fun or interesting gameplay, paired with a level design that leaves you confused. This remaster thankfully added a pathmarker along other quality of life improvements, as well as collecting all expansions, the Nintendo 64 game, and a whole new expansion.
I love what this game does with its enemies in terms of animations, especially how some models change the more they're damaged and how a lot of enemies will shoot some final shots before dying, which you can also stop by shooting them again. Things that you don't even see often today. The enemies itself however are simple and dull. And the most confusing thing is still that some of their enemies go heavily underused. I forgot this game had medics and some very similar enemy type until they were heavily used in Call Of The Machine. You will mostly fight food soldiers, the annoying simple flying guys and those overall guys who have a machine gun, a grenade launcher and are very mobile. It still strikes me as odd, as the fact the grenade launcher guy from Quake 1 being slow was the very intentional design to counter balance his grenade launcher and chainsaw, and it's not like Quake 2 is a more mobile or fast-paced game.
The main game was alright though too long, the original expansions were worse, the 64 game was I'd say better than the original and especially had a nice length, and Call Of The Machine is the best.
A bit unfair, as this not only has 25 years of hindsight but also the modern technology. Resulting in the most visually striking, mechanically complex and best designed levels. While there are still quite a lot of games, including Quake 1, I would replay first. Although, the episode "Deepest Depths" was a standout in how great it was. Most visually beautiful, tightest designed and with a really cool surprise at the end.

It does blow my mind how this is a substansial gameplay improvement and expansion of 2, which was a substansial gameplay improvement and expansion of 1. More engaging stealth stuff and new survival elements that balance a fine line between simple and complex make me feel like going back to 1 will be very weird. And I haven't even made a lot of use of the CQC interrogation stuff, so I kind of do need a replay.
In terms of story, this one is also great but I think a bit weaker than 2. It still had a whole lot of great moments and beats and then the ending is just gut punch, hilarious Ocelot moment, gut punch and gut punch.
This having better gameplay but a slightly weaker story than 2 makes me understand why either of those are usually someone's favourite within the series. Right now I cannot tell which one I prefer, I just know I finally experienced some of the best classics ever made.

Well they fumbled something as simple as a re-release of 20 year old games so here I am playing the original Xbox version and killing bots.
I think this is the first game I have memory of playing, so a lot of my love is undeniably carried by nostalgia but it was still a blast to open this up and spend some 10 hours in it. To remember that I once thought this was the peak of graphics!
It still blows my mind how well the game just works offline because of the use of bots. Simulated multiplayer matches against AI. While not matching other players, it is fun and can even be challenging, especially on higher difficulties. The maps are the highlights, I would say. Especially the ones that are exclusive to this one and did not make it over to 2, like Bespin Platforms or Tatooine.
Some issues did really bug me this time around, though. The different factions do have strengths and weaknesses, but the balance is off. The CIS have droidekas with strong shields and the mobility of the AT-STs of the Empire was more often an issue than it was a benefit. In addition, clones and stormtroopers are always more fucked on the forest maps of Yavin and Endor, since the droids and the rebels blend in more with the environment and you stick out with white armor. I'm confident those issues were somewhat resolved in the sequel, but I will see that once I move on to it.

But yeah, one of the first games I ever played, and it's still dear to my heart.