With more replays, the game does suffer from a sense of repetitiveness with the bosses and room layouts. I wished the game offered more variety in terms of enemies to keep each run more unpredictable. However, I also understand that the point is to have you try out different play styles and randomized perks to make each run fresh. But for me, it didn’t quite work that way, so it definitely feels more stiff compared to other rogue-like games. Still, I love the game’s world, characters, and sense of progression. It’s hard to know whether I enjoy Doom Eternal or this more. I’d say for now they’re tied, but as much as I enjoy this game I’ve definitely noticed some of the issues with it. Also, Cyberpunk is definitely not game of the year for me lol. Goodnight

Look COD has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I’ve never thought any of the games were great, but my favorite ones have always been dumb, hilarious, and at least somewhat fun. This one ticked all the boxes for a cheesy, dumb as shit adventure that was actually enjoyable. Never cared for multiplayer and Zombies hasn’t been fun since BO2 for me but the campaign managed to hold my attention despite its identity still being similar to past titles. So as a COD game it’s good, as a game it’s fine. So, let’s meet in the middle.

As much as I enjoy DS3, I have conflicted feelings about it overall. I find it’s combat system, animations, and general gameplay to be the most refined of the trilogy. This led to plenty of awesome enemy and boss encounters that were exhilarating and fun. The game wasn’t very hard, but I may have to chalk that up to my experience with the series. But what I’m conflicted on was the experience as a whole. Many of the locations the game has you explore felt like rehashes of previous concepts, such as the poison swamp and maze-like catacombs. They don’t build on them or twist them in a surprising way, they just recycled areas that weren’t even that great, to begin with. And that’s my largest problem with DS3, it feels like it’s identity hinges on DS1 with all its fan service and call-backs. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed seeing past locations plunged into complete ruin, it’s really cool to see. But I just wished there were more cool ideas and memorable areas. That doesn’t mean the areas were poorly designed, I enjoyed how a few areas integrated the DS1 approach to connecting areas together with shortcuts. Although I do miss having that larger interconnected world, but this new approach isn’t bad, just not my personal favorite. I’m glad I replayed this game, I had a lot of fun and the combat is my favorite of the three. I’ll still find DS1 to be superior with its impressively interwoven world, but DS3 is my go-to for bosses and combat. Still great.

While 64 was surprising to me Sunshine was incredibly disappointing me. It has such a nice vibe, such gorgeous, vibrant visuals, quirky but fitting music, and it controls fairly well...but, and this is a big but, I felt as if the game was cobbled together quickly. Now I don’t have direct evidence of this, but the repetitive or downright tedious tasks, such as having to rely on some dumbfucks to throw you to another platform or having to find the correct fruit in order to hatch a Yoshi added so much pointless and frustrating fluff to the experience. There are just too many moments that were straight-up boring to even recall. It’s not a bad game, because there is fun to be had, but I felt too often that I had to find that fun rather than it came to me.

I’m still kind of mixed on this one. Ultimately I found the overarching plot and cast to be intriguing and enjoyable (despite how depressing the game is). However, a few months lack any story significance leaving the pacing to feel sluggish at times. During those times, though, I would continue forming bonds and leveling up social links with random people around the world. Most of the social links were actually compelling. Though the fact that most of the main cast don’t have links or they unlock late-game left me feeling somewhat disconnected from them up until the second half of the game. But hot damn was the conclusion to their journey not only bitter-sweet but wrapped up the themes so nicely. The only aspect left that was consistent throughout the game was Tartarus, the dungeon tower. Traversing this dungeon eventually grew tiresome with how repetitive the layouts of each floor was and the countless random encounters Once in combat though the game was enjoyable, if not frustrating since you can’t take control of your party members. In the end, I had a fun time with the combat and grew to enjoy the story, despite a few underdeveloped situations and characters leaving scenes feeling hollow. Probably my least favorite game in the series so far from a character perspective (might change with a replay), but it’s presentation and gameplay loop was still impressive and addictive.

In some ways I’d consider this better than P5. From a narrative perspective a lot more dedication was directed to fleshing out the cast, with each of them searching for what they genuinely feel deep down. All this, of course, juxtaposed with the cast trying to solve the mystery behind the murders in their town and the TV world full of mysterious creatures. It wasn’t a bold story or anything completely new, but it’s simplicity served as a decent backdrop to the characters’ internal plight. However, the dungeons in the game, although brief, subtracted from my experience. Being whisked away to these multilayered, repetitive and bland looking dungeons left me wanting to go back to the real world every time. The combat within them managed to alleviate the dull map layouts, but even then it was nothing amazing, just decent. I still thought the game had moments where the writing floundered, but I couldn’t help but grow attach the Inaba and the friends I made along the way anyways. By the end I was actually feeling emotional, with so many heartfelt and hilarious moments occurring with your team they genuinely felt like real friends. At times creepy towards each other cough Yosuke and Teddie cough. Regardless they gripped me, which made managing my time with them all each day even more difficult. It may not be one of the best games I’ve played, but it’ll probably go down as one of my favorites.

Before I properly delved into this game I had started it and shut it off more times than I can remember. The stiff combat and bland look to everything I guess deterred me, but due to boredom, I decided to give a fair shake. All these years and I had been putting off, now, one of my favorite RPGs ever. My feeling towards combat hasn’t changed much though. As I clocked in hours with it my feelings on the combat did become more favorable. With VATs being a satisfying mechanic, and the various builds involving combat I found it to be fairly dynamic. Melee and gun combat was still stiff (mainly due to how static enemies are when normally hit) but the extra layers helped it become more enjoyable. The other aspect that bugged me originally was the bleak visuals. Somehow this playthrough I found them to be slightly more vibrant. It may have been the somewhat expressive lighting that helped, but visually it wasn't a complete eyesore. Not that good still, but bearable enough. Now the one aspect that completely swiped me off my feet was its narrative and quests. Not every what was a winner, such as most fetch quests and exterminate tasks. Those missions, though, weaved into building meaningful and complicated relationships with the various factions stationed in the world. These connections would feed into the main quest line of figuring out why the mysterious man named Benny shot you for the package you were delivering. With how many different paths available to take I was constantly enthralled because was fully in control of my story. This also gave plenty I incentive to explore since there was a chance I would find a new faction to delve into or just random characters to interact with. Every conversation has variables with character building playing a direct role in speech as well as many other facets. It’s aided further with the surprisingly well-written dialogue and complex characters. With just this along the game is highly replayable. I will have to experience this several times over to actually give my perspective on everything. It’s a dense game, but one that rewards exploration and any build that suits you most.

‘Silent Hill’ feels less cohesive compared to ‘Silent Hill 2’. What I mean by that is how random and freakish the whole experience is due to how it’s scares, enemies, and locations don’t really have any personal connection to the main character like 2’s does. This gave way for a very insanely bizarre and, again, random experience. The game just fucks with your head with a barrage of disturbing concepts being thrown at you. Honestly, I felt as if the devs just threw everything against the wall to see what stuck and it really was a neat and unique experience. The sound design, industrial, distorted, music, and oppressive atmosphere elevated the fucked up nature of the world and gave me some genuine scares. All that being said I wasn’t a huge of fan of the narrative as a whole due to how abrupt the ending was and I never cared about the cult aspect the game explored. Also, the combat was tense at times but I never really felt engaged with it like it did with the puzzles and building expiration. Still, an incredibly impressive classic horror experience that hasn’t aged the best mechanically but still holds some of the best atmosphere building I’ve seen in a game. (also sorry if this has grammatical errors I’m stupid at times)

Never in my life did I expect to even dare play through a game like ‘Persona 5’. I always found RPGs of this ilk to be daunting due to their obscene lengths and absurd content density. So obviously my decision to play through it was a bit more conscientious than when I usually pick out a game to play. Throughout the first six to ten hours or so I was genuinely underwhelmed. I was able to appreciate the distinct style within its visuals, music, and overall presentation. The vigorous black and red color pallet gave the world a comic-like esthetic, and the music backing it up maintained its groovy, rock melodies throughout. That being present didn't change how I viewed the slow introduction. It was far too linear and constrictive for my tastes, but in a way it was necessary. Taking its time to build upon its core mechanics with social links being formed between your friends and the way the turn-based combat worked made for a comprehensive experience. Due to the absurd amounts of content I mentioned, it made sense why the game wanted to slowly spoonfeed information. Still, it didn't make those dull hours anymore enjoyable, but it ultimately led to the absorbing gameplay loop. That loop of both fleshing out your relationships and fighting off supernatural beings within the hearts of corrupted adults was unlike any circuit I've partaken in before. It was never constantly good (let's face it, with a narrative this long there were bound to be noticeable dips in quality in terms of writing) but even the terrible drivel that showed up gave way for hilariously awkward moments. Though I'd argue there were more moments of sincerity and genuinely enjoyable conversations between your friends. My favorite moments of gameplay came from simply talking with my buddies and partaking in the several activities around the cities to boost my social stats. The dungeon crawling and turn-based combat was surprisingly fun and linked well to the social link mechanic with combat upgrades present within them. From my initial playthrough, I did enjoy my time with it. It had glaring flaws narratively, but I'll be more comfortable digging into them upon a second playthrough. As far as first impressions go, this one somehow managed to capture me despite its ninety-hour run time.