I tried so many times but I cannot find the motivation to finish this. Believe me, I tried. Zelda is one of my favorite game series and I've played every single title to completion at least once, many of them several times. But I was lukewarm on BOTW, and TOTK straight up feels like DLC. It's a really big expansion pack that adds a bunch of shit to BOTW, but the new shit is only interesting in isolation and none of it adds up to a cohesive experience. The story sucks, gameplay is repetitive, the shrines are somewhat better than BOTW but they're braindead easy, the map is essentially the same except for some random floating rocks and an empty dark underground that I felt no incentive to explore, you've seen and done it all before in BOTW. The worst thing for me is the dungeons. The content leading up to each one is fantastic, but the dungeons themselves are somehow even worse than the barebones BOTW dungeons. I legit feel gaslit by the praise for this game, and I feel sad thinking about the future of the series.

The original RE4 is one of my favorite games, but even with the Skyrim amount of ports that exist today it isn't something I'd go back and play. If all this remake did was let you move and shoot at the same time I would be in love, but it's so much more. The story and color palette are darker and more dynamic, the action is improved, it looks gorgeous (the RE Engine continues to impress), and characterization is better across the board. It's simply a better game in every way, and for me this is peak Resident Evil. It balances the survival horror elements of the prior titles with the action elements that would come in later titles.

A stone cold masterpiece. I do have some strong criticisms of this game but I don't even feel like talking about them right now. The world design is second to none and there were countless moments in the open world and in curated story beats that left me in awe. I treat story as flavor vibes only in these games but the story is definitely the best it has ever been in a From game to date. Elden Ring also has some of my favorite bosses I have ever fought, and some of the most difficult. It's a shame I'll never get to play this for the first time again.

I finally beat this shit. Full disclosure, I got the "bad ending" so I didn't fight Sword Saint or whatever comes after The Owl. But I'm counting it complete. 99% of the time I hated my life playing this but the 1% where I entered the combat flow state is the best a game has ever felt. I wanted to finally beat this before Elden Ring and it only took me a full year of very slow progress. I think this is the last game at this difficulty I'll play until I'm retired or something. When Elden Ring comes out I plan on summoning people for every fight and volunteering my time helping others. I can't do this shit anymore. But I'm glad I did.

I've been playing this little by little on one of those SNES emulator consoles over the past year and I finally finished. This is an absolute masterpiece. It's hilarious, surreal, charming, comfy, and uniquely subversive of RPG expectations considering the time of release. After defeating the final boss I spent a bunch of time just walking around the world and talking to people I had met along the way. Saying goodbye to my friends and going home at the end of the adventure was so satisfying. I would love to return to this game again many years from now when my memories of it have faded. An absolutely brilliant achievement.

I have played every Yakuza game and I am shocked to announce that this one is my favorite. Shocked because I typically don't love turn-based combat and/or unnecessarily long games where you need to grind a lot. I think it's because of the party. Typically you play as one protagonist and, though you interact with plenty of cool characters, you aren't really hanging out with the same characters very often. Ichiban is an incredible new protagonist for the series (I actually prefer him to Kiryu) and I loved all of the party members. Every time I logged on to play I felt like I was hanging out with my buds. I also loved all the meta-commentary about JRPGs and video games in general. It felt self-aware but in a totally earnest way. The story was great too, definitely one of the better ones in the series.

The combat gets old by the end of the game and the "dungeons" you use to grind straight up suck, but even at its lowest point I couldn't help but enjoy hanging out with my Ijincho pals.

It's a flawed game but it's perfect to me.

I love games that could only be games. So many AAA releases these days could just as easily succeed as prestige TV or movies. NieR: Automata takes full advantage of the medium to deliver a moving statement on the importance of love, empathy, and hope. I didn't think it was quite a masterpiece; I found the themes way too heavy-handed (like if you had asked me to write a video game story after my second year of a philosophy degree) and the gameplay, especially during your first playthrough as 2B, started to become a slog. But I think the slog is worth it. I found the "true" ending to be incredibly moving. Also, the soundtrack is one of the best I have heard in the last few years. A very unique and rewarding experience.

I think it was a mistake to focus more on the story in Hitman 3 than in the previous games. It's a fairly interesting story, but narrative is simply not what I play these games for and it gets in the way here. The first level is visually impressive but pretty lackluster mechanically and the final level is the worst level of the modern trilogy. Wrapping up the trilogy with a lackluster story-focused mission was a bummer for me. To me, the Hitman games are more of a puzzle game than anything else and they're better when you ignore the story. It does make me hopeful for the IOI James Bond game though.

Overall though, the lackluster levels are balanced out by some of my favorite levels in the trilogy and it's a fitting end for Agent 47.