Loved these games as a kid but could never get past the first couple levels. The animation and music give off incredible vibes here, but there are just so many cheap deaths in this game that the actual game part hampers the experience.

Finished Aladdin with ample use of rewind when I decided the game was being too cheap.

Abandoned The Lion King which was just too cheap even with rewind for me to care enough to keep going.

I had to use google translate to play this one since I don't speak French but I still enjoyed it's message. It's very derivative of You Are Jeff Bezos, which the creator cites as an inspiration. For those who might not know, and I didn't before playing, Bernard Arnault is currently the 3rd richest person in the world, and the only person of the top 10 richest people to not be an American. The game focuses on his wealth and on the COVID crisis, as the game was released in April of 2020. I liked this game for many of the same reasons I loved You Are Jeff Bezos. It's great at giving you a perspective on the immorality of billionaires, and showing how much good could be done with the money they hoard. It's also a unique perspective from the typical America-centric approach most games take, although still obviously relatable as we all live under the nation of capitalism. The COVID focus is also immediately relatable at the time of release, as so many people are dying when this money could be used for humanitarian aid.

Hugely expanded from the much smaller experience that was Lume. I loved this game, from its gorgeous hand crafted aesthetic, to its extremely chill and relaxing soundtrack. I loved all the residents of the town I could talk to, and the old adventure game style puzzles to solve. I did have to look up the solutions to some puzzles again, but I'm kind of used to that in puzzle games. Overall, I think if you like "twee" games you'll adore this one. It's just a very nice one to sit down and vibe with.

The most fun I've ever had with a Battlefield game. It leans into its video gamey-ness and players can take tons of hits, and it's got the whole numbers flying off of characters thing going on. My experience in other Battlefield games has pretty much been to take a few steps and then get killed in one or two hits by someone I never even saw, so needless to say I much preferred this style. Favorite thing was definitely hopping in a plane and waiting to take empty control points and getting into dogfights. Also the cartoonishness of everything is very fun to look at. I've decided that the fact that it's got no story and is so cartoony will let me break my usual 2 star barrier that I have with most military shooters. This one was I fun time when I played it.

This is a review of the launch state as I didn't stick around for any updates. I'll start off with the good: This is the best Iron Man game you can play, it's a shame The Avengers game didn't rip it off. That's it, that's the good. The bad is that, likely due to some EA meddling, BioWare sacrificed any semblance of a good story in order to make this a games-as-service looter shooter. The characters are dull, and while the core mechanics of the combat are fun, fighting the same waves of enemies over and over again to get the same kind of loot over and over again gets tiring very quickly. The multiplayer aspect of this doesn't lend itself to helping what little story there is either, as you'll try to pay attention to the plot but then have to try to keep up with whatever your multiplayer partners are doing, and typically their dicking around will ruin any sense of seriousness the plot is trying to have. I'm not going to pretend this is the worst thing ever, because the core mechanics are fun to play around with. It is however, one of the most disappointing games I've played, due to the high expectations I have for a BioWare game. One of the last things I wanted from this was to play it, move on, and never think about it again, but that's essentially the experience I got.

Along with Neo Cab, this is one of two games from 2019 that I like to call "gig economy dystopia" games. This is a mostly linear visual novel game, with some branches for the ending, but it's so incredibly written and makes you think about the ethics of technology and how it interacts within capitalism. Also all the voice actors in this game are giving incredible performances. You play as Evelyn, a former programmer for the AI driven therapist Eliza. After quitting the company and spending some time battling severe depression off screen, Evelyn decides to work as a proxy for Eliza. An Eliza proxy is a gig job, where you have an app and check in to work as the human face for Eliza, and communicate with the client who is getting therapy from Eliza, and you as a proxy simply tell the client what Eliza tells you to say. The game is more nuanced than something that would paint this as a solely evil thing. It asks you to deal with ethical questions of how technology can be used to help people, even while it's stuck in the problematic situation that is capitalism, and it asks you how one person's use of said technology might be more harmful than anothers. I love these kinds of morality questioning stories, and I love stories about potential new technologies and especially if they mention how those things interact with sociological systems, so this game is right up my alley. Strong recommendation.