maybe the one that resonated with me the least on this list but that’s not to disregard how incredible an experience it is and its obvious importance. this is the game that i can admit others have very well exhausted discussion on and anything i say probably has been already established or isn’t noteworthy enough. still, fucking incredible i wish they still made shit like this.

i’m fuckin lazy so here’s the review i wrote. my bad.

genius in every way, subverting expectations and critiquing not just rpgs but video games as a whole. nailing into your head that the world doesn’t always revolve around you but still the importance of acts of kindness no matter how small. if there were to be some “objective” list of the greatest games of all time i would say without a doubt this deserves to be there.

one of, if not the best think-piece games i’ve ever played. gameplay loop is perfect, thoroughly intriguing all the way through, yada yada yada some bullshit about how everyone has already said enough about this one. a game i’ve thought about every day consistently since i’ve completed it. if mgs1 is about conspiracy in-and-of-itself then i’d say mgs2 is about the ideas and information that sprout them. insert some quip about how Kojima Predicted T. Internet! but i find the predictions less interesting compared to how it’s executed. and it’s not solely about the internet either, mainly just how its existence further spins and distorts webs of information/data. predictions and observations like these will forever be relevant (and also kind of inevitable), what impresses me is how mgs2 uses its theories in such a way that inspires everlasting thought and discussion, both as a point of contention and a beacon of hope. the final codec with the patriots is one of my favorite moments in any game ever.

resonated with me the most out of everything this year and quickly became an all time fav. still don’t know how to talk about this one in such depth and i’m a bit peeved that my joke review ended up becoming so popular. anyway i digress, something abt dod3 had me hooked from the beginning to the very end (the final boss is another one of my favorite moments in games) where ultimately i was sorta depressed when it was all over, knowing i’d never continue the experience or relive it. but i guess that’s anything, right. not gonna say it’s super thought provoking or anything but to me it’s taro’s most complete work.