Pretty sure this game is what cocaine feels like. It just kinda throws shit at you not caring if it actually works or not and I kinda love it for it. When it just lets you fight dudes it’s so much fun, but it gets a little carried away with things you can’t really counter. Anytime I saw the ninjas that throw incendiary shurikens at you I’d just get upset, same with the skull worms. But the combat feels good enough that those annoyances just kinda fade away as soon as you get to start swinging a fucking demon scythe at dudes. Every single boss outside of the final one was kind of a joke, after a certain point I was able to beat them all by just spamming Y with the scythe. The story was basically nothing but I wasn’t expecting different so who really cares tbh. The dismemberment system was actually a really neat addition, seeing fiends throw other fiends’ body parts at me was really cool.

Second best Uncharted game. This series really felt like it hit its stride on the PS4, I consider both PS4 games to be the best in the series. The gameplay still feels great and it looks fucking insane. The open world chapter is probably the highlight just because getting to actually explore is just really fun. The main thing that brings it down when compared to 4 is Asav, I just don’t like him as much as Rafe and Nadine. But I really like Chloe and Nadine’s dynamic in this game. If they bring Uncharted back I would love to see these two together again.

Probably the best game the Guerilla has made so far. It does really well in actually making this sci-fi setting about space WWII feel incredibly grounded, even the more outlandish things like the lightning gun and the hovercrafts feel like versions of those things that could actually happen. It helps that even in this far flung future, they still mostly use weapons that are obviously derived from current real world weaponry. It also has one of the best video game shotguns ever along with some incredibly satisfying weapons like the boltgun and the aforementioned lightning gun.

It’s really funny to me that both times Naughty Dog ended a trilogy by making a racer they made a game that I enjoyed more than most Mario Karts. I really enjoyed this game a lot. The driving feels really great and I love the variety in mission types in the adventure mode, it kept things feeling fun all the way to the end. I loved the effort they put into the story mode too, they made a story that fit right into the series and felt like a proper end, even if it technically wasn’t. The music is really great too, very 00s. Despite loving this series a lot I never finished this as a kid because my copy got ruined, so playing a game in a series I love for the first time felt surreal.

Well, I did it. I've finally beaten ARR. It was about 100 hours, but I've done it. I think when most people say ARR is bad, what they mean is its not as good as the later expansions that they've been playing for years. ARR has plenty of problems and there are plenty of times when I got tired of the fetch quests and MMO filler, but the high points are pretty high. When the story gets going it's really good. Finishing the patch quests has me really excited for Heavensward because what they left us with is really good. I played all of the base game as a warrior and loved it, but I got hit with tank anxiety pretty bad in the patches for some reason so I fucked off and leveled dragoon to 50 and I don't regret it dragoons are cool as shit. Excited to hear the new voice acting, I've heard its a lot better.

Cyberpunk’s writing is incredible. I found myself getting really attached to basically all of the characters. V and Johnny’s dynamic is great. I’m surprised how well they used Keanu here, he plays the standoffish anarchistic rocker really well. Jackie is also another highlight, they actually managed to get me really attached to him, so much so that I teared up at the E3 trailer moment. The entire voice cast is great and they do a stellar job of bringing the writing to life, even if the slang can be a bit much to get used to.

Night City feels alive and it’s a wonder to behold. The amount of detail in every corner is astonishing and it does wonders for the atmosphere. More games need to let me walk down neon soaked streets at night in the rain. Now that it’s on consoles that can handle it, it looks immaculate and runs really well too.

The gameplay is also better than I was expecting. The guns themselves feel pretty good and the variety in weapons is also good. The game honestly feels more like the modern Deus Ex games than a standard open world game. It feels like if you took Mankind Divided’s Prague and spread it over an entire city. The driving is the only part I’d call rough, but it’s not bad enough to bring down the overall experience for me.

Speaking of things that are rough, I didn’t run into that many bugs. Of course I had a few and a couple required reloading a save, but it didn’t happen often enough over my 50 hours with the game that it became a problem.

I didn’t go into Cyberpunk expecting too much, but I came out genuinely in love with it. I spent literally 20 hours just doing side quests at the end of the game just so I didn’t have to finish the story and have it be over.