A bloody, raucous slobber-knocker of a throwback title. Decided on an additional playthru to get the Platinum, because the more perks I unlocked, the more fun the game became. In similar games (modern God of War), I usually find one or two strategies that get me through every fight, but by the end of my 3rd playthru (on the hardest difficulty) I was using every tool in the kit in nearly every fight to claw my way through. That's great game design.

This is now the most fun I've had with a game from PS Plus that I never would have bought on my own.

Damn good time.

I mourned the end of RDR2, because I'm fairly confident I will never experience a game like this again. Rich, detailed, epic. A heartbreaking story that rivals even its forebears in cinema. The idiosyncrasies that put a lot of people off become absolutely essential to the complete absorption into this world and its story. Unlike its predecessor, it discards the cynical satire of young America for a complicated moral tale of a man with a dark and bloody past trying to earn redemption with the devil at his heels. A peerless masterpiece.

To me, Red Dead Redemption has always been Rockstar Games at their best. Maybe it's the open environments of the Old West; it requires the game to be leaner, more-focused. Maybe the juxtaposition of the deceptively civil language and the lawless violence makes the satire a little sharper. I'm CERTAIN a big part of it is Dead Eye taking the sting out of Rockstar's habitually awful aiming mechanics. Whatever it is, I am so glad I got to put this on my Platinum shelf without suffering through an online component.

An absolute marvel of a throwback RPG. Eight narratively and (perhaps more amazing) mechanically different playable characters that make party choices excruciating in the best possible way. I love its 2.5D aesthetic and the music is fantastic. I even managed to Platinum the game with minimal grinding (WHAT?!?!?). With the exception of The Witcher 3, I don't double-dip on 100+ hour Platinums, but there's a high likelihood I will for this one. Not only because I discovered some new mechanics on the FINAL BOSS, but because the game deserves a second go-round.

I think a certain subset of spoiled gamers are unable to see what a stunning accomplishment Lies of P is. Not only does it go toe-to-toe with the franchise its genre is named for, but Lies of P manages to improve on some of the more irritating idiosyncrasies of the FromSoft titles. A clear story with fascinating themes, a robust weapon selection/creation mechanic, and a wonderfully diverse gallery of bosses that entice the player to engage with all of the systems available.

All of this and it's the developer's FIRST GAME? Holy shit. The
DLC and sequel announcements were the best gaming news I got this year.