I don't know why this exists, it's an extremely unfocused and muddled project that doesn't even remotely come together. It's an open world except it's covered in deadly fog that prevents you from exploring and it's entirely empty and devoid of things to do, so what's the point? Ah, do the repetitive busy work and you get to dispell the fog and explore more and get even more repetitive busy work to do! Screw that, everything is the same and you see the whole core loop in the first hour. The sheer overuse of detective vision in order to proceed is just comical. It's so ridiculously in your face about how much busywork it has, every time I open the map it takes a full minute to take control from me and slowly hover over every new icon on the map hoping to tempt me to check the sidequests out. It has some of the clunkiest and worst feeling FPS combat I've ever played. The story is incredibly short and has almost nothing going for it - you play as the most generic guy ever, with a stereotypical hardboiled cop who doesn't play by the rules in your head, and the rest of the cast basically doesn't exist. Was I seriously supposed to care for motorcycle woman (Rinko? I don't remember), who died about two hours after I met her, who only talked to me briefly maybe two times? Ah yes, let's say and explain nothing about KK until the final hour and a half, that'll make you connect with him! Hard to care about anything when nothing is ever explained or spelled out and everything ultimately boils down to things happening for the sake of filling time. The entire walking simulator segment of going through dull retread environments while you hear Akito and Mari not having a good relationship was such a slog. The first session I played it, I was enjoying hunting for lore and such until the 20th text message or scrawled post it note of a dead unnamed character who clearly had no relevance or anything interesting to say - maybe put even just ONE interesting story into any of these scattered lore bits? Huge disappointment in every regard. The best part of the game was the entire stupid bit where the villain used force lightning on the corpse of your sister and then inexplicably fell down a hole, just an absolutely impossible cutscene to take seriously even though it was meant to be setting up the final battle.

I'm not gonna say no to another chance to wreck things with Annette and Dedue. Loved getting to see a different perspective on Fodlan and to meet some of the unseen figures constantly mentioned in Three Houses, the story has its issues (particularly feeling rushed and unfinished) but man it sure does some cool stuff at times. A shame that a certain bit of hypnotism happens and harms both the impact and pacing of Azure Gleam because that was shaping up to be a genuinely top tier Fire Emblem story... ah well, at least it still hit some very high notes. It's a musou, you know what to expect, but I love the micromanagement stuff, from the training and support building to those map mechanics to better direct your AI companions. Just had a great time, it makes for a very fun co-op experience and we were so happy to revisit this world and cast of characters.

World 10-1 was a genuinely good level, it was actually fun. There's like 4 or 5 other levels that are pretty good, and I love the Fire Hydra(nt) boss. That aside, this game is a baffling fever dream of horrible design decisions and awful levels awash in an obnoxious and annoying soundtrack with some of the stupidest cutscenes I've ever seen. Every button doing the same thing, often overwriting the ability to jump, is absolutely the most insane design decision I've ever seen in a video game (especially in a platformer!). I love how the various NPC storylines range from "this farmer's home and livelihood are destroyed in a tornado" and "this girl is nearly murdered by a dolphin that goes crazy" to "man loses a single game of chess" and "boy doesn't understand gravity". Genuinely hilarious that the game seems to be trying to tell a story of overcoming your fears and reaching out to make friends, but the main villain just gets killed off instead of them doing some power of friendship deal to redeem him. Maybe Act 3 changes that? Who knows, I sure don't care to find out! It's not the worst game ever made, but it genuinely is an awful experience with very few redeeming qualities and I was really only able to derive any entertainment out of it from the co-op breaking the game to a hilarious and unintended degree. Don't put yourself through this.

Bunger is one of mankind's greatest achievements. That Metal Gear Solid gag at the end was incredible, absolutely perfectly done. Had a great time, it's addictive and fun with an enjoyable cast of characters. Shout-out to Scoopy Banoopy's voice clips, they might just be the funniest ones in the game to me. Pretty much figured out exactly how it would play out and what the story would ultimately be very early on but it still built up to that point really well and had us invested the whole way through, so I'd say it did a very good job of that.

It's a neat looking game with some interesting puzzles, but it's over very quickly and I don't think it does the best job of teaching you how to play it. Had a few times where I got stumped and each time it boiled down to the solution being a move I didn't know was possible for me to make, and the game wasn't able to reveal that without just ruining the puzzle. This could have made for neat little "aha!" moments, but instead it felt just a bit frustrating. It's a shame that it's so short, because as soon as I figured out all the tricks and was ready for more it was over after about an hour and a half. Overall though, it's a solid puzzler that I recommend giving a shot, simply because this game understands how satisfying it is when shapes fit into other shapes.

Wonderfully self-aware, Village is a masterclass in balancing genuine scares with over the top absurdity. It consistently keeps things fresh by cycling through different horror lenses, and knows exactly when to veer into campy humor as a palate cleanser. Exploring the village was a joy for me, I loved that sense of discovery when I realized I could finally go somewhere and see what it hid. Ethan Winters is the biggest dork in video games and the hand scene after that one Dimitrescu encounter is the absolute peak of video game comedy. Looking forward to going on this rollercoaster ride many times to come, I adore this game.

It's a short, budget mini-sequel, and for that it's very good. I'm always interested in seeing asset/engine reuse games like this come out and wish it would happen more often, it often leads to interesting experiments like this, Captain Toad, and Majora's Mask and I'm always down for that. It's a shame that it repeats the same three environments several times, but I liked those maps, it made for a fun story, and this isn't a game that lasts for particularly long so it's not like it's a slog. It's more Alan Wake; I like Alan Wake, so that's fine by me. Plus, it had a fun setpiece with some unexpected Kasabian, that was a pleasant surprise.