Started this way back in August but it took me forever to finally finish it clearly. Over 100 hours poured in puts it among the longest games I’ve played, though I guess I’m kinda glad I went so slowly given Larian would add another new patch whenever I decided to turn it back on

It’s been a while since I’ve played through the Divinity games, but given how great Original Sin 2 was I’m not surprised that this is as highly acclaimed as it is also. BG3’s a very impressive RPG in design and presentation, managing to maintain the level of depth traditional to this style of top-down CRPGs, but with immense AAA production values to match which for the genre sets it apart from everything else in that regard. I’ll admit I’m not really familiar with tabletop D&D and its rules (nor have I played the first two Baldur’s Gate games yet), but as a standalone experience I wasn’t lost and it’s amazing what they pulled off here. The closest I guess I can compare it to is like a more ambitious Dragon Age: Origins, which is awesome

There is just so much here, you’ll probably spend dozens of hours in the first act and its opening areas alone cause of how dense with content it is. Basically all of it (while being mostly optional) is worth doing which made it very easy to sink a lot of time into, and given the game’s many different quest variations and choices you’d likely get a lot of replayability out of it too. Graphically it looks fantastic, but what Larian really shows off is how dialogue is done with unique cutscenes instead of text boxes, using full mocap for literally every single NPC you can talk to. Given how BG3 is no less massive in scale, that’s a pretty remarkable advancement from their previous games

The main story itself is good, and the stakes with trying to remove the tadpoles in your head keeps it compelling. But I will say narratively I think it peaks with Act 2, as Act 3 gets a bit less focused to me and wasn’t really a fan of how rushed parts of the ending felt. I did like the epilogue and how it wraps everything up but as far as I know, that part wasn’t even in the game at launch and had to be added with a patch

The characters and their performances are largely top notch though. Some of your companions are more fleshed out than others (Shadowheart and Astarion were my favorites), but for the most part they’re all memorable and their personal quests do a good job developing them throughout. Personalization for your main character is strong too, though will probably depend on whether you choose a custom background or an origin. I made the perhaps ill advised decision to do my first playthrough as “The Dark Urge” which is considered an evil path, but I found it really interesting to roleplay as someone trying to be good despite that. It adds a very cool amount of connection to your character and the story, and really liked how varied your dialogue options are so you can still shape how you respond to your own actions and past. It seemed to affect quite a lot especially in Act 3 too so can’t say how much is changed without it, but would recommend for sure. Whenever I decide to replay I’ll try going full evil next though >:)

Combat is of course turn based with the standard fantasy classes you’d expect to choose from, and since this is D&D based all actions and skill checks are done with dice rolls. The RNG tied to this can be annoying (will not deny I have a long list of quicksaves), but I enjoyed its usage in gameplay and decision making. Will say combat can get really slow at times though, why they never have a way to speed up turns in these games is beyond me, you’ll frequently fight numerous enemies at once and having to sit through every single move they make gets a bit tedious at times. I also felt like a lot of the loot/equipment you find was a bit unrewarding, I ended up using armor and weapons I found in Act 1 for most of the entire game cause I didn’t really have much reason to switch them out. But that may just be a D&D thing with progression, especially since the level cap is 12

Besides that the only notable problem for me was performance, which could be better… It’s definitely been improved with all the patches, but at release you could tell it still needed much more polish and even now it’s not exactly stable. I’ve actually played this both on PC (Steam Deck) and PS5, though both weren’t ideal for different reasons. On Steam Deck it ran fine for most of Act 1 and Act 2 at 30FPS, and with FSR 2.2 (this wasn’t added til later tbf) it looks pretty great now also. Act 3 really starts to push it though, it’s the most impressive part of the game on a technical level given how packed the area is with so many NPCs, but clearly the least optimized as I had near constant FPS drops and more noticeable bugs like frequent animation lags or quests being easier to sequence break. That said, those with much better hardware for PC probably won’t have as much of an issue

PS5 in comparison runs as it should, even Act 3 mostly holds 60 FPS in performance mode from what I’ve played which is great. This would be the obvious way to play BG3, if not for the insane amount of crashes I’ve had on it that crippled the port for me. I haven’t played something that crashed this often since Cyberpunk at launch, past a point I couldn’t even open my saves anymore without getting kicked off and some of them even started saying they were corrupted somehow, rendering it basically unplayable on there (thankfully there’s cross save support). This is still not fixed in my case and not sure if it’s just my PS5 or something to do with the game on console, but regardless wouldn’t advise buying it on there. Some don’t seem to have as much of a struggle with it though so YMMV on that I suppose

Despite the gripes (and extreme annoyance at the PS5 version), I really enjoyed BG3 and was sad to see it end after all the time I spent on it. More than anything though I’m glad it’s such a massive success for Larian, despite their positives isometric CRPGs are usually seen as having niche appeal so it’s cool to finally have one break out into mainstream like this has. Hopefully bodes well for the genre going forward

A murder mystery VN set in a 1482 monastary (kinda reminds me of Pentiment actually but more of a direct kinetic novel than that was). As a “Volume One” entry the central mystery it’s building toward is sadly left incomplete for now, but I would highly recommend it on its own anyway as its character writing and presentation really set it apart

While the cast overall is pretty compelling, it’s the protagonist that really makes this for me. Centered on Hedwig, an Anchoress who lived most of her life in total isolation, who’s suddenly forced out her cell by her Superior and given the goal of secretly trying to solve the murder of one of the convent’s Sisters. What makes Misericorde really interesting so far is not exactly the mystery itself (though the potential is definitely there), but seeing how completely unprepared Hedwig is for such a task and having to overcome her poor social skills as a result. Her internal dialogue is really well written and descriptive, watching her clash so heavily with trying to interact with the other Sisters while also playing a “detective” really makes her compelling to follow

This VN also looks and sounds really cool. The use of a monochrome aesthetic for the sprites and (I’m assuming) real photos as the backgrounds works really well in giving the monastery an unsettling gothic atmosphere. And while there’s no voice acting the music is excellent too, kind of hard to describe but it’s like lo-fi or trip hop sounding which seems like an odd mix but it’s actually very fitting

My feelings on it may change when I can think on it as a whole, but as is it’s really good and I’m very excited to see how it continues for Volume Two. Shows a lot of promise if it can pay off from all the build up

I’ll readily admit I’m biased when it comes to Persona 3. FES is a game I hold very dearly, still remember first playing it a decade ago now and having no idea about Atlus games at the time. In a way it was even transformative for me in how much it helped grow my interest for anime/JRPGs in general, and one of the rare few games I feel leaves an emotional impact. So Persona 3 Reload, a genuine from the ground up remake for it and not just a basic port (like Portable’s recent release), is like a dream game I didn’t think we’d ever actually get until it was really announced last year. It’s not perfect of course, but the nostalgia and how strongly it still hit me is the same as ever

What it does well

- The most immediately striking improvement from the PS2 original is the presentation overhaul to Persona 5’s standards, bringing with it full scale character models with the very stylish art and UI that made P5 so dazzling. Here P3’s aesthetics have been beautifully updated and the menus are especially immaculate, never getting tiring to look at and browse through. While it can be argued the original’s moody atmosphere is diminished a bit with the new vibrant style, it still wholly fits the game’s somber tone to me

- A big change with Reload that I appreciated actually has to do with the English voice acting, as compared to FES and Portable there’s been an entire recast for the characters (barring one exception with Elizabeth). It’s fair to be apprehensive over this after being used to the original voices for so long, but I felt Reload’s cast did a fantastic job bringing new life to the characters and really making them their own. I’d even go so far as to say this is one of the best dubs Atlus has done, as not only are pretty much all the performances consistently excellent, this is also the first Persona game where every single side character and their Social Link events are fully voice acted! Something that really made a huge difference in how invested I’ve always been on spending time with them. It’s an impressive effort and I hope that’ll be the case for future Atlus games also

- As far as story goes, it’s faithful to the original with the major beats being unchanged, but there’s many new scenes added with better opportunities to bond with the characters now. The dorm feels more like a true home in Reload where you can just hang out and it helps attach you to them in a way that wasn’t quite as fleshed out before. A big omission in FES (the lack of any Social Links for male party members) was also addressed with Link Episodes, which are similar in that it gives them further development but instead ties their events to the story as you progress. They’re not quite the same as full Social Links like with Portable, but it’s a very appreciated change that felt natural and added a lot to their growth

- Tartarus has always been a divisive like it or hate it kind of thing with P3, and it’s more or less the same dungeon with literally over 200 generated floors to climb in Reload. That said it’s been improved with much larger scaled floors and QoL additions, it looks a lot better design wise, and they did add some nice improvements that made it less of a bore to get through like Monad doors (challenges to fight stronger enemies throughout). Combat now also takes directly from P5’s battle system and is basically identical, which gets no complaints from me. There’s party control with new mechanics like Shift (similar to Baton Pass) and Theurgy, it’s really stylish, and it’s much breezier to fight shadows and fly through floors than before which is pretty much all I wanted there. Merciless difficulty was pretty fun too, not very hard but not a joke either which is better than how they had it for P5 Royal, would recommend trying it if used to the combat in these games

- The music is fairly different having been fully remixed with Lotus Juice and a new singer Azumi Takahashi doing vocals, while also adding some original tracks as well. I’ve seen mixed opinions about the OST changes, but personally I got used to it quickly and still think it’s an incredible soundtrack. The new songs “Full Moon, Full Life”, “It’s Going Down Now” and “Color Your Night” are easily among my favorites in the series now too

What could be better

- Obviously Atlus made it clear with Reload they were only focused on remaking P3’s main game with the male protagonist, which means it doesn’t include both The Answer (an expanded epilogue introduced in FES) and the extensive route for the female protagonist that Portable introduced. It does still include smaller additions from both those versions such as Aigis’s Social Link or missing persons to save in Tartarus, but I can understand why people are let down by the major exclusions especially for the price, as without them you might as well say P3 still doesn’t have a true edition that brings all its content together. However as of now The Answer’s currently rumored to be made for Reload as DLC at a later date, so have to see how that pans out I suppose

- While I adore the presentation, there are a few odd quirks to its visuals. Most areas look nice and it even supports 4K/60 with ray tracing on PS5 which was a surprise to say the least, but some areas look sorta… off. Either with its strangely flat lighting (the dorm being an example) or being static to the point of seeming unintentional honestly (calling out Club Escapade in particular). Perhaps it’s due to budget or just cause it’s using Unreal Engine instead of P5’s proprietary one, but feel there could’ve been a bit more polish there

- I’m a bit mixed on cutscenes compared to FES. As rough as they were, the anime scenes did have a very cool grungy 2000s direction to them that made up for the graphics at the time. Instead Reload uses both new anime and in-engine cutscenes throughout similar to P5, which for the most part are fine (I actually like the in-engine ones quite a bit with how nice the 3D visuals are now), but the quality of the anime scenes take a hit in my opinion, more up to date with them being done by Wit Studio but also looking kinda bland in comparison. How they decided between one or the other for story moments is inconsistent also, why is the awakening scene done in-engine and not as anime for instance

- For Social Links the writing is one thing I wish was touched up on more. There’s some notable differences here and there (and thankfully made it so you aren’t forced to romance every girl to complete them), but overall it’s mostly the same and you can easily tell they’re the earliest iteration on the formula with the weaker Social Links still sticking out (Kenji for one). But as mentioned the voice acting elevates them nonetheless, and I still love particular ones like Akinari’s

- You’ll easily max out your social stats and unlock all the extra skills for party members with plenty of time to spare, which means you’ll probably be lost on stuff to do at night in the late months with still only 2 social links available the whole game. There’s a new computer with software to use, but eventually you’ll make full use of that also which basically just leaves Tartarus or stat building for Personas at the arcade. This was an issue with the other versions too and was hoping they would try to adjust it, but guess not

Overall

Some aspects could’ve been improved upon further overall, but really couldn’t be happier this remake was made. As someone who’s played FES, Portable, and watched all the movies (even owning the box set lol), Reload genuinely felt like I was able to experience P3 for the first time again. It doesn’t try to change the original experience at its core and can be said it’s faithful to a fault, but it still develops into a story that remains the most emotionally resonant among the Persona games for me. Where it succeeds is how well it carries over that story to current standards for both new and old fans, doing just enough to expand on it and modernize the gameplay while maintaining why it’s so beloved. Even knowing how it comes together after all these years I was still greatly affected, and given that it remains one of the most meaningful I’ve played

Sifu’s a kung-fu beat ‘em up that has a stance based combat system similar to Sekiro, where learning to dodge and parry attacks is essential to overcoming difficult enemies and bosses. And just the same, it’s very unforgiving until enough time is spent getting used to its levels and mechanics.

In addition there’s a roguelike element to it where each death will make your character older. Giving you greater damage but less health until you get too old to fight and have to start over, losing the progress of the level and any skills up to that point that haven’t been unlocked permanently. Initially I wasn’t sure I would like this as losing significant playtime is the one thing that can be a turn off for roguelike games, but in practice it’s much more tolerable.

Aging carries over to the next level, and starting over will only set you back to the start of that level with the same age. And since the game has shortcuts, you can retry and just skip through much of the level if you’ve already reached that point before.

But because the combat gets more complicated as you progress, it’s encouraged to go back through prior levels and try to pass them without dying to maintain a young age (for more lives) up to the final level. And it’s worth it as I kept replaying and gradually improved more and more until I was flying through them with minimal deaths all the way to the end.

I really liked the art style too. It’s like a mix of cell shaded characters and environments with realistic looking lighting, and some of the locations are very cool like the third level.

I did have some issues though. While the combat’s very enjoyable, I’m not sure it was as tightly designed as I would’ve liked. Parries and dodges can feel inconsistent with different enemy types, and it can be a bit too hard to telegraph some attacks especially with bosses.

There’s also a story here, but it’s not really fleshed out enough to take notice. Your father was killed and you take revenge by going after the ones responsible. That’s about it really, you get some information about the characters through a detective board but they don’t have much substance to them beyond the premise. The focus is mainly on their designs and fights though so I didn’t mind.

Had a ton of fun with this. When looking at its five levels altogether it’s actually a pretty short game, but the amount of time you’ll spend trying to master each one adds a lot of replayability to it.

There were many improvements upon the combat, options and customization of the first game, and what they improved I enjoyed. Those things alone made this feel like the better game of the two. A town with characters made the game world a lot less empty than Fallen Order's. There were more stances, and more abilities that fleshed out combat a good deal.

But almost everything else I was excited for going into this game left me feeling disappointed. The story is really not all that great, it starts well, and some of the new characters leave you interested, but eventually you come to the realization that this just isn't going anywhere and that really sucks because the villain had so much damn potential.

The initial planet sets you up that each planet will be as deep and as interesting as this one, but when you get to planet 2 and 3 and they are so barebones, and you just keep coming back to planet 1, over and over in the story, it really takes the wind out of your sails. It makes you enjoy Planet 1 less.

I enjoyed this game, but I can't say for sure I enjoyed it as a whole more than the first. I guess maybe when you factor in the new options and customization, but the missed opportunities really weigh this game down in my opinion.

One thing is for sure, when Respawn makes whatever the third game in this series will be, you HAVE GOT to get your writing team together, and really try map out an interesting plot. I really just don't know what they were thinking with this story.

Also, holy shit this is one of the buggiest, screen tearing-est games I have ever played. One of the final cutscenes was not supposed to be funny, but it had me laughing hysterically, because I thought it was bugged. But it wasn't bugged, it was just a weirdly done cutscene. But because this game has so many weird issues (characters T-posed literally every time I departed from a planet) I EXPECTED that it was a bug, and so it ruined that scene for me.

Ubisoft’s best game in years! I had hopes I’d enjoy it a lot given this is by the team that made the exceptional Rayman Legends (a decade ago now oof), but this managed to surpass expectations even and as a Metroidvania it genuinely stands next to Hollow Knight and Ori as my favorites in the genre. Having fantastic combat and boss fights with strong focus on combos/parrying attacks, very fluid platforming controls and traversal powers with razor sharp challenges throughout, and great level design as you explore the large and varied map of Mount Qaf

There’s some minor gripes, had a few crashes and felt like the story it was telling was fine but nothing very noteworthy either aside for the characters just making for cool bosses. Also since backtracking could be frequent, I kinda wish fast travel was a bit less limited and let you move between save trees. But otherwise this was a joy to play and the 25 hours it took me to finish flew by (still have plenty leftover for 100% too)

Man, this game just perfectly exemplifies how big the divide is between a 4 star score and a 4 ½ star score, because Lies of P is slap bang right in the middle. Too good for the former, but not quite hitting the heady heights that one would attribute to the latter. The quintessential 8.5 outta 10 if you will.

Lies of P takes heavy inspiration from From Software and the Soulslike genre that Miyazaki and co are recognised for creating. I say "inspiration," but really, that's just a polite way of saying that developer Neowiz have copied the Bloodborne formula wholesale, added a pinch of Sekiro, and used their own nonsensical retelling of Pinocchio as the main means of distinguishing their game from its forebearers. In terms of story, this dark fairytale aesthetic is some bobbins that can safely be glossed over from the onset. NPCs have several longwinded (and very one-sided) conversations with the titular 'P', often droning on long after the player's attention has drifted elsewhere. I was quite happy to ignore the narrative stuff for the most part. Where that aesthetic really comes into its own though is in the visuals and locations. Lies of P has a level of polish and fidelity scarcely seen in a From game. There's little of the technical inadequacies like Bloodborne's infamous frame-pacing issue blighting the experience here. The city of Krat is often handsome to behold, from the glossy and Art Deco-esque hub location to the atmospheric, Parisian cityscapes of the initial chapters. Without resorting to hyperbole, Lies of P could pass as a generation ahead of Elden Ring, but maybe that's not the most fair of comparisons. Point being, it looks pretty dang tight for a game of this genre.

But where the game truly shines is, unsurprisingly, in its core gameplay. As established, Lies of P is cribbing from a long-established formula, but we've seen other developers try and fail to capture that From magic before. Neowiz don't fall victim to being a pale imitator however, and have managed to replicate the much-adored Souls experience to a tee. It's a game that feels inherently satisfying to play on all levels. There's a myriad of different mechanics here, and they all feel good to use after sufficient time spent in the trenches, from the Fable Arts to the Legion Arms to the overall movement. The parrying system is less forgiving than the one found in Sekiro, and the player will quickly realise that spamming the block button isn't a fast track to victory, but put in the practice and learn the enemy combos and it becomes a very viable way of removing huge chunks from your opponent's health bar. It's a tough game, but it's fair (mostly), and in true Souls fashion, it's the boss fights are the undisputed highpoint, frequently straddling the line between exhilarating and stress-inducing and delivering that huge dopamine rush that only comes after toppling a big baddie and removing the barrier to progressing onwards.

It's enough to make you quickly forgive the fact that Lies of P barely has an original bone in its entire body. Rather, there's something oddly heart-warming about a studio, with an unproven track record and hailing from a country that's more known for its MMOs than strong single-player experiences, tackling a genre that's new to them and absolutely knocking it out of the park. South Korea's gaming industry appears to be an emerging international market at this particular point in time, and Lies of P gives me hope that Stellar Blade and Little Devil Inside (and hopefully more of their ilk) will deliver on the expectations set by their strong promotional material once they finally see the light of day.












But seriously though, Little Devil Inside is so cancelled.

Should’ve finished this months ago but got a bit burnt out and distracted with other games for a while. Overall I enjoyed it a lot and prefer it to FF15, but somewhat conflicted as a few things did keep it from being a favorite of mine by the end

The coolest thing about FF16’s definitely the sheer spectacle of its boss fights and set pieces, which is probably the best I’ve ever seen? It doesn’t really let up at all from start to finish either, would highly recommend it for that alone honestly. That said while those very high points are consistently spread throughout the main story, the moment to moment gameplay in between is… less impressive

The action combat’s really fun, but past a point it started to wear itself out for me with how much you fight the same mobs of enemies and not much variation with Clive’s weapons and Eikon abilities. And areas to explore are fairly empty save for the side quests which are just kinda there, mostly inoffensive and I didn’t mind how there were just a few at a time between main missions (at least til the end when they start dropping a lot at once), but not a highlight either

I did like the story for the most part, though it’s one where I feel it has an amazing start then kinda settles once it opens up, which wasn’t bad but wish it kept that kind of momentum for it. The darker world-building was interesting and Clive was a good character, but I think the last 1/4 of it stretched on a bit too long. And I also definitely felt the lack of more party members, there are temporary followers like Jill but most of the game is just Clive and Torgal on their own and felt they could’ve done more with the cast there

What an awesome game! While I thought the first Alan Wake was fine combat aside, this is easily among the biggest jumps in quality I’ve seen for a game sequel. Shifting the genre to true survival horror (more akin to The Evil Within or recent RE remakes with gameplay) while still confidently maintaining its surreal David Lynch vibes is the coolest thing they could’ve done with the series, their execution is a dramatic improvement and you can really feel how passionate of a project it is. There can be a few bugs that may hinder it a bit though and wish there was just a bit more polish for the PS5 version, but hopefully those are ironed out over time. Definitely one of my top favorites this year

So Starfield… everyone knows what this is and everyone knows how Bethesda RPGs usually turn out, so will just give thoughts on what their new IP supposedly “25 years in the making” does well and what it falls short on compared to their other games. I’ve done all the main and faction quests in my playthrough, and pretty much got my fill of it aside for NG+

First off since it’s likely to be the biggest point of contention about it for most, this isn’t much of an exploration game despite Todd’s unsurprisingly exaggerated marketing claims. In fact I’d even say that despite being set in space with “unparalleled freedom” to explore, this felt like the most constrained and segmented game Bethesda’s made so far. As unlike their previous titles, the gravitation toward just going out on your own and getting lost in their open world was very limited to me for a few reasons

For one there’s no actual overworld like in Elder Scrolls or Fallout, and space itself is not seamless like say No Man’s Sky. Planets you land on and space stations are broken up into hub areas, with central attention clearly going toward the various cities in the game. It may technically be true that there are over 1000 planets, but that’s pretty much meaningless to me as I’ve had little reason to ever venture away from the main systems. If you do decide to land on any procedurally generated planets that aren’t connected to quests, you’ll likely find little of interest on them other than sticking around for outpost building or resource gathering (both of wish I didn’t care for much)

You do own and control a ship which is cool, but it’s only used for dogfighting in zoned areas or docking onto stations. Thus you can’t actually use it to travel directly to planets without going into your starmap and selecting it in the menu. On land you also aren’t able to venture too far from your ship without hitting a map boundary, and obviously this means there are no land vehicles of any kind. Though this honestly didn’t come up enough to matter in my opinion

And on the topic of not being seamless, Bethesda’s made no advancement on limiting how frequent load screens are in their games. They’re still pretty much everywhere, from going into your ship to landing to just opening random small stores in the cities. It’s thankfully just a few seconds at least cause of the SSD, but would probably be unbearable otherwise. So sufficed to say it’s still very dated in this regard, and probably isn’t going to change as long as they stick with their everlasting Creation Engine

I guess a more accurate comparison for how this game actually is would be The Outer Worlds (albeit with a much bigger budget). I don’t exactly think this is a bad thing, but it’s also not really what it was advertised as either. Starfield’s universe tries to give off an impression of how vast in scale it is, but compared to before it ironically doesn’t feel anywhere near as sprawling

Having said all that, that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy my time with it. What it actually does well is different than I expected, it’s kinda as if their focus flipped entirely from exploration to just taking quests. The majority of time I spent was just in dialogue talking to characters in the city areas, which are generally well done and surprisingly dense with a lot of side content. The game does make a pretty poor first impression (the intro especially is not good and jarring in how quickly it pushes you from being some random miner to a member of Constellation), but did get sucked into the game the longer I played once I started focusing on faction questlines or the smaller side ones

There are caveats to this, for one Bethesda’s writing can still be hit or miss and quest design itself is still behind the likes of other RPGs. The main story is… eh, the ideas it has are cool but feel it goes by too quickly to really leave much of an impression. For most of it though I think they’ve improved especially compared to Fallout 4 which bored me to tears with its quests. The Settled Systems is fairly interesting and while the lore isn’t quite as extensive next to Elder Scrolls, it’s solid enough as a sci-fi setting. In regard to companions there’s only 4 main ones, but they’re definitely better than before also. Especially since there’s an affinity system and how they can talk about your decisions often, I mostly stuck with Andreja in my playthrough and she had comments for basically every quest I’ve done which was cool

Starfield is still combat heavy of course, but it’s decent. If you were fine with Fallout 4 then this is pretty close to that with a few improvements in mobility. You get a boost pack and can actually climb ledges which is nice, plus combat slides if you unlock it. Few issues though, not sure if it’s just busted right now but stealth felt pretty worthless. Enemies always seem to detect you regardless of your stealth level or equipment, which got especially annoying when doing stealth focused missions and you can’t avoid getting caught. In those cases I just stopped trying after having to reload a bunch of times

Aside for that, third person combat remains supremely janky to control for me so I only used it just to look at my character. The enemy AI is also as you’d figure if you’ve played their other games (not good), little improvement’s been made there. I also didn’t like how clunky it was to browse the inventory and encumbrance which I’ll forever hate as a mechanic

In regard to visuals Starfield is… mixed? In general it’s a pretty great looking game, the art design for most locations is pronounced and lighting is strong especially with interiors. There are a lot of NPCs walking around in the cities which is cool, but they aren’t exactly detailed either. And when you look at faces (which is very often), it has Oblivion energy with the exact same close up zoom and dead stares when talking to NPCs. It’s an odd thing to still have when even Skyrim didn’t, but I guess has nostalgic charm somewhat

It was said that Starfield’s their most polished game and that’s mostly true in my case, though only relative to their standards. On Series X it’s only 30 FPS and there’s still a fair amount of minor bugs throughout with occasional slowdowns in the city areas. But for the most part it’s fine and not as bad as it could get before

I guess that’s about it for now (this review’s already super long). Ultimately I wouldn’t really say Starfield lives up to the hype it’s built all these years, as it still feels like not enough’s evolved with Bethesda’s formula compared to Fallout 4 almost a decade ago, which holds it back from impressing me more along with its general flaws. That said I did enjoy it more than F4 overall, and if you go in knowing what to expect it can still grab you if you let it, seeing as how I’ve managed to put in over 50 hours already lol