Still one of the most imaginative Mario games.

I actually finished this in January, but I kept playing to complete the Pokedex. Loved a lot of the new Pokemon, the story's pretty solid (especially compared to Sword/Shield), the Terastral stuff is probably the first gimmick that I don't think is a bad idea (even if a lot of the trainers are pretty dumb in their use of it), and I like that you can hit the three storylines in a non-linear order (even if the level cap kind of curbs true freedom). Although I never ran into any major glitches, I do wish it was more polished, some more tweaks might actually make it one of the better Pokemon games.

My team: Skeledirge, Clodsire, Kilowattrel, Tinkaton, Rabsca, and Cetitan

I've had a weird history with Half-Life 2 before I finally finished it and its two episodes. The first time I played it (maybe like eight years ago), I enjoyed all of the introductory levels but got bored and stopped around either the early sewer level or the airboat level. Didn't really get all of the hype. The second time I tried playing it (probably about five years ago), I was actually enjoying it a good bit but got stuck in the middle of Ravenholm (not a good place to be stuck for sure) and it fell back into the backlog. Thought it was a good game and started to understand why so many people raved about it.

Now, I can finally say, that Half-Life 2 is one of my favorite shooters I've ever played. It's remarkable how every level is thoughtfully designed and manages to throw out something different every time to keep you on your toes. I previously talked about Half-Life 1's surprising amount of immersion, and 2's world is even more lived-in and interesting. Probably some of the best, most influential physics in video games to this day. Also, both episodes are pretty good (2 more than 1)!

Pretty solid zoo simulator, even if it pales in sheer exhibit/amenity variety to Frontier's own Planet Zoo

This review contains spoilers

Me: seeing Gravemind in Halo 2 "Looks like the plant from Little Shop of Horrors"
Me: seeing Gravemind in Halo 2: Anniversary barfs