Growing up I've always liked Star Wars, lightsabers were cool, Vader was badass, and the music is iconic, but it wasn't until I played KOTOR that made me fall in love with Star Wars and actually attentively watch the movies/shows.

KOTOR features one of best stories in all of Star Wars and takes place in the best era of Star Wars, the Old Republic, set 1000s of years before the destruction of the first Death Star (BBY) where many Jedi and Dark Jedi/Sith exist at the same time. You play as a character you create (both male and female options), you can be good, evil, or walk somewhere in the middle. Your actions and dialogue choices influence how the overall story and relationships with your crewmates progress, all of whom are great characters that are worth getting to know. There are 2 characters that are romanceable, Carth and Bastila, but unfortunately you can only romance one of them and it depends on the sex of your character.

The dialogue is fun and very well written, skill checks while minimal can give you an extra option in dialogue and can avoid certain confrontations or get you some more $$$. Some outcomes can only be achieved by making the right choices and that includes the endings and major character moments.

The gameplay is dated and has aged so keep that in mind, when you encounter enemies the game pauses and you choose your choice of attack or just un-pause and select what you want your character and your crew to do in real time. Feels sluggish compared to modern games but not unbearable.

KOTOR is worth playing for the story, characters, and music alone. It goes on sale regularly and can be played on almost any computer, mobile (port isn't to bad but I recommend easy if you choose it) and now Nintendo Switch. If you can't get into the game hopefully the remake that comes out in the coming year modernizes its gameplay to something everyone can enjoy (PS5 console exclusive but hopefully it eventually goes multiplatform). If you do decide to play be wary of spoilers as there's some moments you'll want to experience fresh.

Elden Ring is FromSoft at their best. Has some of the most memorable areas, enemies, bosses, and NPCs to date in any FromSoft game. Co-op in Elden Ring is also the best it's been whether you're just exploring the open world, fighting a boss, or trying to complete a dungeon (it's imps btw, it's always imps), Co-op is made even better as you can travel the open world seamlessly with mods if that's your thing. No game is perfect and Elden Ring isn't without its issues but the amount of high quality content in the game makes up for its few shortcomings.

Only thing I recommend you do is visit Jarburg and go back every now and then until the story reaches its conclusion (you'll know). If you cannot find it after unlocking most of the map I strongly urge you to look up its location, even if you prefer to find things yourself. I almost missed it in my play through and would've kicked myself if I did. Top 3 moment in the game for me including the epic boss fights and it is easily missable.

Even after Elden Ring, Bloodborne is still my favourite FromSoft game and can confidently say is one of my top 3 favourite games of all time. The setting is amazing, the gameplay is fast and keeps you on your toes, the music is beautiful that gets better within the context of the game, the DLC might be the best DLC in gaming, and the story is beautifully tragic.

Does this game have issues? Of course. Loading screens even on PS5 can be long, hitboxes on certain enemies can be wonky, the story is one of the coolest in gaming but is unfortunately mostly told visually and through item descriptions, and lets not forget being locked at 30fps. But like Elden Ring, the highs of Bloodborne make up for its lows and I pray that this game gets a sequel, PC port, remaster, or the best case scenario, a remaster that comes to all platforms with the announcement of a sequel.

Even though it's been over a year since I've played it to completion I still think about it at least once a week.

Skyrim is Bethesda's best game. Accessible enough for casuals who just want to become the Dragonborn and in-depth enough for hardcore fans of the franchise as my friend would say.

The world of Skyrim is absolutely beautiful, I feel I can walk almost anywhere in the map take a screenshot and it would be nice enough to have as a desktop background. There's cool weapons, armor locations, companions, and player choices that can help you shape the character you want to play as that effect parts of the world. Skyrim also has some of the best DLC of any game, 2 of which rival the story of the main game and the other made me realize how fun it can be to build a house for the character you've crafted.

Full credit does not go to Bethesda in this part but the mods available in Skyrim on PC and to a lesser extent Xbox is astonishing and there's something for everyone. Want DLC sized content with new areas and characters? New amour and weapons? New characters that are fully voice acted and have their own quests and interact with the world around you Upgraded textures that change the environment of the game? Want to make this game A for adults only? Want to basically be an anime protagonist? Would you like if bears sounded like Banjo from Banjo-Kazooie? If you said yes to any of those things there's a mod for you and many can be applied at once.

This is the game that changed my view on video games being pieces of entertainment to video games also being pieces of art. The Last Of Us is a beautiful crafted world with characters I ended up caring for more than any other game I've played. I really felt for Joel or Ellie so whenever they were scared, sad, or laughing so was I. The story is beautiful, haunting, scary, tragic, and even with all the dark, grim, and miserable moments in the game I still somehow feel hope. Because of these characters and this world I was completely immersed and played like I was there with them. The Last of Us is complemented by a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack composed by Gustavo Santaolalla.

I've thought about something from The Last Of Us at least once a week ever since I've played it. If you like games with great stories and characters there is no other game I would recommend above this.

This is without a doubt the best Call of Duty duty game to date. Call of Duty Black Ops has the best campaign in the franchise as well as a top 3 multiplayer and a top 3 zombies experience. The campaign has memorable characters just like it's Modern Warfare counterpart in Mason, Woods, Reznov, and Hudson. The story is full of twists, secrets, and unique locations that make committing war crimes all the more fun and you look cool doing it. The multiplayer rivals the best in the series, it has all the fast paced action of the previous title Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 but has a Cold War setting.

Black Ops 1 doesn't have a single bad map and is the birthplace for many fan favourite maps. Are there maps that are better than others in the game? Of course. But if you take one of the seemingly mediocre maps from this game and placed them in any Call of Duty game that came out within the past few years it would be a top 3 map. Black ops 1 has some of the most unique weapons in the franchise with most of the guns being balanced but none of outliers being stupid over powered. The perk and killstreak system was improved upon from the previous title making better use of pro perks and balancing them throughout the game.

Zombies no longer being a side mode in Black Ops 1 turned it into a staple in not only Treyarch Call of Duty games but almost all Call of Duty games. Building upon the last map from World at War, Black Ops zombies takes the mode further with maps in more unique locations, larger map sizes, more iconic wonder weapons, more perks, and the implementation of Easter egg quests.

Call of Duty Black Ops 1 released with lots of great content with almost no game breaking bugs or overpowered weapons like other games in the franchise and iconic moments that are referenced to this day.

Nice change from the standard formula, catching Pokemon and shiny hunting has never been more fun, and for a spin off game the battle gimmick made a nice change of pace.

Graphics and more importantly the art direction of the game are very lackluster making most areas very bland.

New Pokemon forms and evolutions are great and fun to use and I'm looking forward to seeing how they fit into the completive Pokemon scene once they're integrated into a mainline game with proper abilities.

This game also has the hardest boss battle at the very end of the game which was pleasantly unexpected (you'll know).

Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver were the perfect remakes that were both faithful and added the new seamlessly. Pokemon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby did a hybrid of remaster/remake which worked in some areas but not all.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl are ultimately bland remasters that keep the slow feeling of the original games even though they're not actually as slow. Nothing is better or different enough to be unique, and music was also very hit or miss unfortunately. Maybe nostalgia was blinding parts of game but I've come to the conclusion that Pokemon Platinum has the best of SInnoh and not Diamond/Pearl and these remasters suffer for that.

Before I played Minecraft I thought it was just a silly game meant for kids, but while in high school a friend got it and told it was great and that if I got it and didn't like it he'd pay for my purchase. Around an hour into my first play through I wandered into my first real cave with it's spooky noises and the fear of a creeper hissing behind me and was hooked.

Minecraft has something for everybody for both casual and hardcore gamers. You want to build a house, castle, city, farm, or whatever you like with or without enemies? You can. You want to hunt zombies, giant spiders, skeletons, and other monsters while exploring caves and ravines and finding the secrets of the Minecraft world? You can. You want to play mini games online with friends and other people? You can. If you're on PC and are up for it mods can make this game look absolutely beautiful with shaders or make the game even harder with harsher survivor mechanics with tougher and even custom enemies? You can. You can make Minecraft as difficult or as cozy as you like and on top of it Mojang does a great job making this game as accessible as can be.

Around 8 years later and I still play and look forward to every update. I've been apart of worlds/realms with both friends and random people (who became friends) and they were all great experiences and I can't wait to make more.

As a kid I loved Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life on GameCube (and still do) but for the longest time I never found a farm sim game that captured my heart since. Stardew Valley surpassed that love, significantly.

I love everything about this game, the art style, how the farming works, the events, the mining, the various side locations, the dungeons, and of course the characters and the music.

Stardew Valley is one of if not the most cozy and charming games I've ever played.

The Last Of Us Part II is almost as good as the original game to me, I consider TLOU1 to be one of the best games of all time and TLOU2 out shines it in many ways including obvious reasons like gameplay and graphics but also in character development and character moments that are appreciated once everything is said and done.

First off this game beautiful graphically, I can't believe how this game looks and sounds on my day 1 PS4 and I can't wait to see how it looks on PS5 when an update (or re-release) comes out. The gameplay of TLOU2 improves in every aspect from the original, from shooting, hiding, level design, enemy AI/variety and weapon variety everything is better. Their are multiple moments between characters in this game that made me full on cry, most of the writing is some of the best in gaming.

Speaking of crying, both games are very emotional but god damn TLOU2 is exhaustingly emotional at times, to the point where I had to put the controller down for awhile (not all of them are sad moments though). I get that the world of the Last Of Us isn't joyful nor do I necessarily want it to be but at times I'm sitting there wondering if some of these heavy moments are needed or even necessary. But the major reason isn't the greatest of all time is the pacing, about 40% through the game something happens (you'll know) and the momentum goes back at 0 after being on 100 while you're at the edge of your seat, extremely jarring and felt kind of robbed at what could've been the most intense part of the game. Another pace shift happens around 80-85% through but they do a better job of it.

When people say TLOU2 is their best game of all time I have no arguments, sure it has issues but no game is perfect. Part of me wonders if TLOU2 would've been better if it wasn't attached to any of the characters from the original game but still set in the TLOU world, that it would solve some of the gripes I had that would be considered spoilers. But maybe some of the emotional moments wouldn't have hit as well if that were the case. I still stand by though that TLOU2 should've been Part II and Part III with part 2 filling in more of the gap between the original and part 3 containing most of TLOU2 story. Sure it would've been more time and money to make but the characters in this series are great (both new and old) and I'm sure people would've loved to spend more time with them like I would.

The first Dark Souls has some iconic boss battles and environments that rank at the top of the series but I couldn't help but feel that some of the difficulty was artificial and that some things were made tedious for no reason. Like the Capra Demon fight arena or the Bone Zone skeletons that stun lock you. Also having to run for over a minute every time to get to the final boss arena was really annoying and unnecessary.

With that being said Dark Souls is still a game I'd recommend to anyone who likes souls-like games (if they haven't already played it) or anyone looking to get into the series of FromSoft games. If you are looking to get into the series I do recommend starting with DS1 because starting with the newer FromSoft games and going back like I did can be rough.