My mom yelled from upstairs if I had finished organizing my room

I yelled back "THE DAY BEFORE!"

She smiled, she knew it was finished (unlike the actual game)

A groundbreaking game that has mostly withstood the test of time. This game is the perfect blend of what makes Metal Gear Solid as a franchise so special. It has great storytelling that doesn't overstay its welcome, it has great set pieces and environments that create an engaging gameplay loop. It has an extremely charismatic cast that help elevate the experience and make the player feel encapsulated in the story. It is the birth of the "cinematic" experience that you find in so many modern games today while also having engaging gameplay.

This game is the perfect balance of storytelling in any Kojima game. It explains its overall premise and plot in a way that is both intriguing but not overwhelming. You can tell that the story was a multiple-man team effort with how it keeps its story grounded but also having that sci-fi flair Kojima is known for, rather than the overly convoluted storytelling you see in later entries. You are never confused as to what is going on in the plot while also being curious with what's going to happen as the story unfolds. The characters are very iconic in this entry. Solid Snake, the codec crew, Meryl, Otacon, Foxhound, Gray Fox. Every character gets a great character arc, purpose, and are all charismatic that leads to the icon status that these characters hold in gaming culture. While later games have their great protagonists and supporting characters, they have never been able to live up to Foxhound. Liquid, Sniper Wolf, Ocelot, Psycho Mantis, Vulcan Raven (and Decoy Octopus) all have important roles and their boss fights characterize what the villain stands for. Each of their fights are engaging and stand out from each other that tests the players combat in every manner. The themes of genes and destiny are perfect for this game. It was intertwined with the story with the perfect subtlety; it was never telling the player what to think.

Gameplay is unfortunately where this game shows its age. There are many downright frustrating sections. The laser room to grab the PSG-1 is so needlessly complicated due to the poor movement in this game. The Communications Tower is infuriating if you're not sure what to do as it's all about gun combat in a game that does not suit gun combat. Metal Gear Rex is a trial and error fest, still the best fight in the game in my opinion even though it can be frustrating. With that being said, the level design and enemy AI encourage the player to rely on stealth. Each room is memorable and you can visualize the entirety of Shadow Moses Island in your head. The game gives the player a surprising amount of freedom for how to approach any given situation for a game released in 1998. Backtracking while annoying, is definitely overblown. It is definitely now as bad as many will lead you to believe. The sandbox while small is definitely not limited. Each weapon you obtain serves its purpose and gives players freedom and decisions to how they will utilize their arsenal in any given fight. Most players will end up using every weapon given to them in their first playthrough. The excellent thought process in the level design allows the game to age very well despite all of its inherent flaws.

Music and sound effects are also very iconic, what more is there to say. It's Metal Gear Solid.

Overall, this game is still a masterpiece and holds up well enough for any gamer. If you call yourself a gamer or enjoy video games, I think it is essential that you play this game.

After the honeymoon phase for this game wore off, this game has been exposed for it's glaring problems that are a reflection of the current state of Halo and 343 industries. Microsoft has single handedly botched and ruined their flagship franchise due to their greed and mismanagement of the IP. It is certainly better than Halo 4 and Halo 5 but that is a very low bar to clear. I wouldn't go as far as to call this a bad game but it is by no means a great game and is a far cry from the rest of the titles developed by Bungie.

The campaign is so boring and bland and just feels like another generic open world game. Why they thought it was a good decision to try and adapt Halo into an open world experience is still a baffling move that shows Microsoft and 343 really have no idea what they really want to do with Halo and are just chasing trends to capitalize on flavor of the month. The story is painfully boring and misses out on a really interesting premise with the banished. Why did they decide to "kill" off Atriox (the man who was the main antagonist of the previous canonical entry and an extremely intriguing character who could have made for a compelling villain and story) for Escharum; A watered down "villain" who does pretty much nothing except monologue to Chief for the entire game just makes no sense. He is just a hologram for 99% of the game and when you finally encounter him it's a very boring boss fight where you just grapple around and whittle down his health very slowly. He then dies and claims to be an "honorable fighter" despite almost never showing himself to Chief. The fact that then they decide for Chief to show respect to him just shows the shallowness of the story present in the campaign. Speaking of another wasted antagonist, Jega 'Rdomnai, the so-called "Spartan Killer". He is even worse than Escharum, he isn't even present in any cutscenes apart from the one that introduces him at the start of the game and then dies in a very meek fashion. More wasted potential for a very cool and interesting antagonist. Not to mention the game has a secondary villain who just adds nothing to the story and adds to the list of lore elements that 343 has thrown into the Halo lore that has contradicted the setup Bungie had with its storytelling. The Harbinger and the Endless are probably the most boring villain faction in the Halo franchise. The rest of the characters in this game aren't bad per se but just really shallow and don't really make for a compelling story. Speaking of the story, it also ends on a cliffhanger that could be expanded in DLC but 343 or Microsoft have shown no intention to make it, meaning that the game that was supposed to be "the Halo game for 10 years” ends on a cliffhanger. How fucking stupid. Campaign gameplay is fine, nothing special. It has good gunplay and being able to customize loadouts for any mission is a cool addition. Enemies are fun to fight and they have reverted back to the old artstyle which is definitely a needed improvement from Halo 4 and 5. Their AI is also vastly improved which makes for an actually challenging campaign on higher difficulties unlike the travesty that is Halo 4 and 5's campaigns. The mission structure and open world environment itself is very repetitive which makes about 70% of the game an uninteresting drag. The map is all just one environment, grassy plains. It is definitely needed in at least one area of the game to call back to the second mission of Halo CE but that environment is all you get. Want mountain terrain, a tundra, a swamp, a city landscape? Too bad, not present here. Alongside the wasted potential of the environment is the same 2 bits of side content. Clearing enemy FOBs and finding chests. That is basically all there is to do outside of the main missions. Speaking of main missions, about 75% percent of the game is just forerunner architecture so say goodbye to any mission variety. Really the only good missions were the first mission on the ship and the tank run. The rest are just snoozefest corridor shooters. Also a bit of a nitpick but where is a warthog run? That could have made the ending much better than what we got. How ironic that about 70% of the open world experience you're traveling around in a warthog in the open world going from place to place but you don't even end in one. Overall, the campaign is definitely better than Halo 4 and 5, but has so many missed opportunities that really could have made for a special campaign but unfortunately has led to just another generic open world experience from an AAA studio.

Now moving onto multiplayer; I will just quickly link a list of all the content that wasn't at launch; (https://www.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/qwlog5/list_things_missing_from_infinite/). Nowadays, multiplayer is genuinely a fun experience. But it took almost 2 years to get to this point. It really is sad because the core gameplay is very fun; I'd argue it's the best core gameplay in the series. But it has always been plagued by the state of launch. For those who may not be aware, it did not launch with a dedicated Slayer playlist. A FPS multiplayer game did not launch with a playlist that has been in every single FPS game since Unreal Tournament. Even COD with its yearly entries launches with a Team Deathmatch playlist. Not to mention all the other iconic playlists that were present in other Halo games. There were almost no maps and no game modes at launch. It also to this day does not have a good XP system or a ranking system But it did launch with an overpriced digital store.

Speaking of that store, it is a clear indication that Microsoft has no intentions on ever building an interesting Halo multiplayer experience. The moment this game went free to play was the moment it died. It made progression non-existent, and locked almost all of customization behind the digital storefront. It stings to see just how far Halo has fallen from the basically perfect system present in Reach to what we have nowadays in Infinite.

There is so much more I can talk about but not only has it already been done to death already, it would basically just turn into a rant about 343 and Microsoft. So TLDR: Game is fine and definitely has its good moments, but it is plagued by the deep rooted problems with 343 and Microsoft’s handling of leadership and IPs.

This DLC not only gives more of the fantastic RE4R experience but also brings back classic set pieces from the original game that didn't find their way into the base game, creating a great balance and incentive to play both base game and DLC. It also greatly improves upon the just okay second campaign from the original game. Absolutely worth the $10 and fun to finish in the lead up to Drake's upcoming album "For All the Dogs" releasing October 6th. I will be thinking about this game quite a fair bit while I listen to his new music.

A Black Mass is a ceremony typically said to be celebrated by various Satanic groups. It has allegedly existed for centuries in different forms and is directly based on, and is intentionally a sacrilegious and blasphemous mockery of, a Catholic Mass.[1]

In the 19th century the Black Mass became popularized in French literature, in books such as Satanism and Witchcraft, by Jules Michelet, and Là-bas, by Joris-Karl Huysmans.

Modern revivals began with H. T. F. Rhodes' book The Satanic Mass published in London in 1954, and there is now a range of modern versions of the Black Mass performed by various groups.

History
Early Catholicism
The Catholic Church regards the Mass as its most important ritual, going back to apostolic times. In general, its various liturgies followed the outline of Liturgy of the Word, Offertory, Liturgy of the Eucharist and Benediction, which developed into what is known as the Mass. However, as early Christianity became more established and its influence began to spread, the early Church Fathers began to describe a few heretical groups practicing their own versions of Masses. Some of these rituals were of a sexual nature.[2] The fourth-century AD heresiologist Epiphanius of Salamis, for instance, claims that a libertine Gnostic sect known as the Borborites engaged in a version of the Eucharist in which they would smear their hands with menstrual blood and semen and consume them as the blood and body of Christ respectively.[3] He also alleges that, whenever one of the women in their church was experiencing her period, they would take her menstrual blood and everyone in the church would eat it as part of a sacred ritual.[4]

Medieval Roman Catholic parodies and additions to the Mass

Within the Church, the rite of the Mass was not completely fixed, and there were places at the end of the Offertory for the Secret prayers, when the priest could insert private prayers for various personal needs. These practices became especially prevalent in France (see Pre-Tridentine Mass). As these types of personal prayers within the Mass spread, the institution of the Low Mass became quite common, where priests would hire their services out to perform various Masses for the needs of their clients (Votive Masses)—such as blessing crops or cattle, achieving success in some enterprise, obtaining love, or even cursing enemies (one way this latter was done was by inserting the enemy's name in a Mass for the dead, accompanied by burying an image of the enemy). Although these practices were condemned by Church authorities as superstitious and sacrilegious abuses, they still occurred secretively. In the 12th and 13th centuries there was a great surplus of clerics and monks who might be inclined to perform these Masses, as younger sons were often sent off to religious universities, and after their studies, needed to find a livelihood. Also within the Church, the ritual of the Mass was sometimes reworked to create light-hearted parodies of it for certain festivities. Some of these became quasi-tolerated practices at times—though never accepted by official Church authorities—such as a festive parody of the Mass called "The Feast of Asses", in which Balaam's ass (from the Old Testament) would begin talking and saying parts of the Mass. A similar parody was the Feast of Fools. Though often condemned, practitioners of such activities, called "Goliards", continued despite the Church's disapproval.