Sekiro barely feels like a Souls game and I kind of loved it for that, it shows just how flexible this genre can really be. It's not a RPG, meaning you have to rely mainly on skill and exploration in order to defeat bosses, which made it pretty much the hardest game I've ever played. This also means that there is no character customization, which allowed the developers to focus in how Sekiro specifically plays which leaves a lot more options of what to do against bosses than other Souls game. I only really have two issues, which both have to do with bosses. The double bosses in the game, while very few, just kind of take the approach of smushing two already existing enemies in the game in one arena which doesn't feel nearly as well refined or fair as when they are made from the ground up. There are also a handful or repeat bosses that I just happen to fight pretty much right after I beat the original boss of theirs, so I kind of wish they could've been a lot more spread out. Those are very small issues in the grand scheme of everything that Sekiro does. At the end of the day Sekiro is the most focused Soulsborne and the most inventive one I have played yet.

It took me a while to play this game. First I had to play the other Half Life games (which often felt more like a chore than all that fun). Then I had to drop $500 to buy a new vr headset. Then I had to drop an extra $800 when I found out the hard way my pc couldn't run it. This is still very much a Half Life game and some of the things I don't like about those games find their way into this one. The enemies can get repetitive and the game has some pacing issues (the middle kinda drags a bit). But despite all this Valve has clearly poured their heart and soul into creating the most immersive vr experience to date. It's not even close; the amount of polish and scale that surrounds every corner of Half Life: Alyx is jaw-dropping. With some amazing sections (particularly one involving a monster named Jeff) and a spectacular ending that makes playing the entire series worth it, it's easy to see why Half Life: Alyx is hailed as the greatest vr game ever made.

Alan Wake 2 presents a fantastic narrative with a mystery that was incredibly intriguing and engaging throughout. The new and returning characters were all great and I really cared about what happened to them; Much more so than in Remedy's previous titles.

The gameplay here is pretty decent but nothing amazing, just kinda watered down Resident Evil 2 Remake gameplay. Some of the new ideas were pretty cool (the mind place concept was a neat way to lay out the ongoing mystery and the changing the scene with writing thing was interesting) whereas others (like the lamp) felt somewhat half-baked.

profoundly disappointing, coming from someone who really liked the first two games in the series. the "clockwork city" conceit, where every single npc is an individual with their own schedule and relationships is, at first blush, remarkable. but very soon you realize how impenetrable it makes things. since you're only able to play as npcs who you recruit to the cause, you never feel like you're really inhabiting the world. the second you interact with them, they cease to be who they are and instead slot into a tiny handful of prescribed recruitment missions. these mission never have any relation to who these ppl are, their jobs or histories or personalities. they're just boxes that need to be checked to make the npc playable. and whoever you play as has been yanked out of their procedurally generated routine and made to go on missions. but you can't do their jobs when you control them. you can't spend time with their loved ones. when you are controlling them, they cease to exist. they made this massive real-life simulation, but not for us to live in.

Dark Souls is an absolutely fantastic game that I'm glad I took a risk to try it. The combat and the world are both so addicting and fun to really sink your teeth into, the world is big but isn't too complicated and the combat is pretty difficult and takes a while to get used to, but when you get a hang of it, it really clicks. I should mention though that this applies for most of the game since the endgame has pretty terrible exploration and one particular boss is abysmal. It really sucks since if the game wrapped up a few hours earlier, it would've been a five star game for me, but that endgame is so obviously rushed and padding. However, the rest of the game is so fantastic that it really picks up the slack big time for the ending slog. The two best parts of the game are the gameplay loop and the levels of customization that you can take during the game. Starting with the gameplay loop, it gets so addicting to keep getting stuck at really difficult sections then keep saying to yourself "alright, one more try and I'll get it" and then hours pass and you master that portion of your so stuck on. The customization and variety of different play styles in the game is so interesting. I played the game mainly being a tank that would shield a bunch of hits and not relying on dodging too much, which is such a different experience to how my roommate played through the game by doing the traditional dodging play style that is popular in these games. Overall, Dark Souls does have one major dark spot, but it is the only dark spot in an otherwise fantastic game that I would recommend anyone try who is even remotely interested in it.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom opens (following the e3 cutscene) with a middling and lame tutorial section, introducing you to the new abilities in the same way as before in an area I quickly grew frustrated by and tired of exploring. Following this they drop you back into the world and tell you to go investigate four regions in the four corners of the map. Sound familiar? At these areas you go help out a race before entering a pseudo-zelda dungeon and acquiring a fun but not all that substantial power up. I'm starting to sense a trend here...

Of course, Zelda isn't exactly new to following beats from previous games and I admit I probably wouldn't have minded this structure again had I not felt so disappointed during these early hours (being a Zelda fan) of the game's refusal to bring back classic elements that I craved for for so long. The first two dungeons I did, the wind temple and the water temple were laughably terrible, some of the worst dungeons in the series. The other two were decent, though nothing outstanding. The lack of proper items that unlocked new parts of the game was disappointing as well.

Once I got past this, however, I did begin to enjoy the game for what it was and it did win me over a fair amount. The main story content is a fairly mixed bag with some parts being good and others being incredibly boring. However, when I appreciated this game the most was when doing the side content. The world (the overworld at least, I'll get to the other areas) was as addicting as ever to explore and the side content received a noticeable upgrade over botw, now featuring actually interesting and fun quests in the form of "side adventures" and optional main quests that were fun as well.

The new abilities are largely fun additions and there are some really good puzzles designed around them in the game's shrines (the combat version of which receiving a major upgrade). Unfortunately, a lot of these new additions really bog the game down. The fusing system, while fun, is a nightmare to use in combat and incredibly clunky. Fusing items to arrows is a pain as well, requiring you to scroll through your entire materials inventory to find something specific. For the most part, the new areas (especially the sky) are all kinds of lame and way overhyped with the sky just being a collection of small islands with some annoying shrine puzzles (yes this is coming from the guy who likes windwaker shut up) and the depths being borderline unplayable unless you're going to the few specific areas with quests.

It's frustrating because there's a skeleton of a truly amazing game here. There are some really great ideas and some really clunky execution. Some big improvements on the framework of breath of the wild while inheriting so many of its issues. It's far from amazing and it's not the direction I wanted the series to go in but I did ultimately have fun with it.

(Minor spoilers for the game) At the start of the year, if you asked me what game I thought would be my favorite game of the year, I would've told you Tears of the Kingdom. However, on release, the prevailing word that I would use to describe the game is simply disappointing. Tears of the Kingdom isn't a bad game by any means, but it certainly doesn't live up to it's processor. The game feels way too safe, failing to really do anything incredibly new like every Zelda game before it. Going into Tears of the Kingdom, my expectations were that similar to a Majora's Mask type sequel, being a very quickly made sequel that uses the original formula to add new and interesting elements to the game and take risks. The game really doesn't do this at all. To find why I feel so negatively about the game, the first place to look is the back of the box with it's three main features "Explore," "Discover," and "Create".

Let's start with "Explore," mainly highlighting the addition of the two new types of areas to explore in the game: the sky and the depths. As these are good additions to the game, they aren't huge new features like the lead up would have you believe. The sky area isn't very expansive and there's a limit to how many islands you can explore before there is literally no one to get to any others and you just need to explore the ground to then get to other islands. The depths have a very similar issue with only chucks of the depths being able to be explored before having to go back to the surface and explore there more to find more holes, but it's also completely dark in the depths, making the entire design philosophy of BOTW of turning a corner and seeing more areas to explore, non-existent in the depths. This isn't great inherently in my opinion, but it gets even worse when you realize there is virtually no reason you should be exploring the overworld apart from finding different ways to explore the over sub areas, as the open world is literally the same as BOTW, which is BY FAR, the biggest issue with the game. The overworld is also a lot less interesting to explore with the lack of one key enemy type, guardians. Guardians made BOTW really fun to explore since these dangerous enemies could pop out of nowhere and just entirely fuck you up, but nothing like this exists at all within ToTK.

The issues with the overworld really fall more under the "Discover" aspect of the box since you really aren't going to be discovering anything. The overworld, which is the main area you are exploring through the game, is not new. Sure, the developers alter it slightly but it's the same layout with the same collectibles and same exact towns. Most of the weapons and clothing and shields are from BOTW, yeah there are some new ones, but me and my roommate literally counted and only like a third of the items are actually new.

Finally, is the "Create" part of the box, which can be described very easily as a janky mess. The overworld and systems in BOTW weren't created for random machines to be used to explore them and it makes it more awkward than anything to use them. Not only that but actually creating items in the game is really fucking annoying as even the slightest piece out of place or the machine being placed in a slightly wrong area will just make it so your machine simply doesn't fucking work correctly. It's so frustrating and this is the big new selling point.

Quickly going other issues I had with the game is how the systems overall are just way too overcomplicated compared to BOTW, with all the new abilities being also very clunky and not as simple as in BOTW, mainly is fuse which is a fun idea, but having to navigate menus to do anything really interesting with the ability and pulling out items just kills part of the enjoyment of fusing. Finally, as much as I'm sucking BOTW off in this review, it isn't a perfect game, but none of the major critiques of BOTW are really addressed. Starting off wit dungeons, sure, they are better than BOTW's but like, not much at all. The dungeon themes were better but the designs were just about the same, the next game better at least go back to the key dungeon design of the prior Zelda games. The other major critique of BOTW is the rain effecting climbing and making exploring basically impossible in the rain, and TOTK addresses this a bit with the frog suit, but it barely does anything and takes most of the game to even fucking get it.

This review has been more of a rant than anything at this point but I didn't outright hate the game, there are some positives of the game. The ending section was a lot meatier and overall just better than BOTW with entire fight sequence being really fun and well designed. The fusion system had it's issues but it was fun to fuse weapons with items you scavenged to make even more powerful weapons. The recall ability was also really fun, had a lot of interesting uses and led to some cool and inventive puzzle solutions. The towers were also better in ToTK with more interesting ways to unlock them apart from just climbing. One of the champions was really really cool and was fun to screw around with. The story was a bit more interesting than BOTW's, even if it fucks up the entire Zelda timeline for no reason.

After 6 years of waiting, overall, Tears of the Kingdom was very disappointing for me, being a safe sequel that really fails to understand what made the original so great.