Firewatch is a charming experience full of gorgeous vistas and impressive voice acting. As someone who enjoys backpacking and camping, I think the setting gelled with me well and carried some of the more monotonous gameplay moments. You need to enjoy walking and looking at pretty things, because that's really all there is to do in this game. Thankfully, you're accompanied by excellent voice acting and the illusion of choice in your dialogue options, and the chemistry and banter between Delilah and Henry often made me smile. Many folks gripe about the ending, but for me it was a reminder that at the end of the day, experiences in life are temporary, and often end in unsatisfying ways. I do wish there was less hand-waving of the conspiratorial/borderline horror elements, but turning it into more of a personal story was alright.

100% Completion Notes: Walk around, find fun and cute easter eggs, beat the game. A great achievement palate cleanser after something difficult or grindy.

Hollow Knight achieves what few side-scrolling games can: the perfect blending of style and substance.

Roaming through the sprawling realm of Hallownest, I often found myself enthralled by the gorgeous backdrops, whimsical bugs, and incredibly varied enemy design. Hollow Knight tells its story in a similar vein to games like Dark Souls, where you must glean the things you can from descriptions, cryptic hints, and the world itself. That works for some, and not others, and obviously did for me.

Not only is Hallownest gorgeous to look at, it's also extremely fun to navigate and fight through. Controls are tight and responsive, and abilities/power-ups are introduced at a pace that doesn't make learning the mechanics feel overwhelming. Containing both challenging platforming sequences and boss fights, the game respects the player while simultaneously challenging them to "git gud". A fantastic experience overall for those it clicks with, and a recent addition to my Top 5 games of all-time.

100% Completion Notes: My proudest completion to date. I bounced off of this game after attempting the pantheons multiple times, but finally attempted it with a renewed vigor last month. Grinding the boss fights to practice for the boss rush mode, I truly felt like I had mastered the game and its challenges. The Steel Soul run was stressful but fair, and I will look back fondly on the time and effort I put into getting all the achievements in one of my favorite games.

While I played the original back on the PS2, I can't say I had a lot of nostalgia for this game. The remaster looks great, handles well, and for what it is, was fun all the way through. The humor was hit or miss, but Grant Albrecht's delivery of Crypto carries even the worst jokes. The games levels were varied enough between on foot/saucer combat, and holoblob (cloaking) stealth. By far the funnest parts of the game are destroying entire towns with your saucer.

100% Completion Notes: Had a fun time with this one and its very straight-forward achievement list. Got 90% of the achievements just playing through the game and just had to clean up challenges and optional mission objectives, none of which were too hard.