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.

The greatest immersive sim of all time. The greatest stealth game of all time. Dishonored is a lovingly crafted game that puts you in the driver's seat of a disgraced royal bodyguard. The sheer amount of different methods and routes you can take through Arkane's incredibly made levels is second to none. The art style still holds up today, and the gameplay still remains some of the best in the business.

100% Completion Notes: Loved doing two playthroughs for High and Low chaos to see what changes, both big and small, my actions brought about. The base game and the Brigimore Witches/Daud DLC was fun and a great expansion on the universe. Then there are the Dunwall City Trials. The achievements pertaining to those, and the expert versions of the trials, were some of the most frustrating, challenging achievements I've gone for. Proud to have completed it.

Like playing through an extended, best-hits episode of South Park in the best way. Exploring South Park was a great time with secrets and laughs tucked away in every corner. The gameplay was extremely repetitive and got boring quickly. Swapping out your party members didn't help too much either. Plays similar to a Super Mario RPG with turn-based combat with quick-time events to boost results.

100% Completion Notes: I'm glad I went for the achievements as they pointed me towards meeting everyone, finding and seeing everything. A great time.

Observer_ is a pretty cool take on the cyberpunk genre, hitting on themes you'd expect from similar games like SOMA and Cyberpunk 2077. What does it meant to be human? How far can we augment ourselves before we lose what makes us, us? The side missions of Observer are where the writing and atmosphere really shines. I was never too engaged by the main story.

100% Completion Notes: A decently fun time, only took one playthrough using a guide. A bunch of collectibles to find, but I loved exploring the run down apartment building that serves as the game's setting. The achievements also pushed me towards the side missions, which as stated previously, was my favorite content in the game.

The classic with some fancy new bells and whistles. Was able to play it a decent framerate (somewhere above 60 FPS, can't remember exact numbers) with some DLSS and other settings tweaked on a 3080 12GB. Was fun to play through a game I hadn't touched in quite a while with a fresh coat of paint. Found myself just staring at the lighting and the glow from the portals for extended periods.

100% Completion Notes: My first time going for all the achievements in Portal. All of the base game achievements were a blast to get. The least steps/least portals challenges can go jump in a hole and die.

Metro 2033 is an excellent blend of FPS combat and a bleak narrative with excellent horror elements. I would hesitate to call this a horror game, but it is bleak and frightening at times, certainly. I thought the gunplay was a step above serviceable, and the level/mission design was varied enough to keep me engaged throughout. The story was just okay, but the depressing, post-apocolyptic world they built is engaging. I highly recommend playing in Russian with English subtitles for added immersion.

100% Completion Notes: Requires two playthroughs to get the two different endings, with the "good" ending require you to complete a long list of obscure actions throughout the game, and if you miss too many, tough luck. That plus the litany of Artyom's journals you need to collect, using a guide is almost mandatory.

A decent action platformer with endearing humor and dripping with Tim Schafer's creative juices (ew). The gameplay and graphics have definitely aged, but I still mostly enjoyed my time with the game. The concept of each level being another character's inner mind is a great set up, and the game certainly delivers on it.

100% Completion Notes: There are a loooot of collectibes in this one, including the "figments": doodles that fly throughout the game's many levels, sometimes even clipping in and out of the walls. Other than that drag, the list is fairly straightforward. There is an achievement for playing the game on Christmas, but I ain't got time for that so I just changed my system's date.

Bioshock 2 probably has many similar reviews: that it's an excellent game, but not quite up to the standard the 1st set. I'm one of the folks with the opinion that this game is on par with 1, and in some ways even surpasses it. The gameplay takes a noticeable leap, and exploring different sections of a dying Rapture is always fun. Yes, the story isn't quite as good because it lacks that gasp-inducing twist that cements Bioshock 1 and Infinite as GOAT gaming stories, but it still has plenty to offer, especially in the audiologs!

100% Completion Notes: The base game wasn't too bad to complete, with many similar achievements to Bioshock 1 (full research, upgrades, find all audio logs, no vita chambers, etc.). The DLCs I am mixed on. Minerva's Den is an incredible self-contained experience, and delivers that story twist that the base game was lacking. The harvesting challenges are a drag. I hate defending a helpless NPC. Bleh.

The start of one of gaming's best sci-fi stories. With the remaster, the game has been modernized to an extent, and the graphics get a respectable bump. The core gameplay, and especially the menus, are definitely showing their age, though. Regardless, I had a blast playing through this classic again and appreciated having a bit more context for the larger story beats this time around.

100% Completion Notes: Not too bad overall, playing on Insanity difficulty had its hair-tearing moments, though. The trophy list also includes a separate one that spans all three games, so you need to be cautious to get all of those as well.

My first repeat completion, this game was just as much fun in 2022 as it was in 2013 when I played it the first time. A good storyline for a superhero game (until the ending) and features my favorite rouges' gallery. The combat, while simplistic, can take some skill and reaction time to master, and was good enough to be the inspiration for later games like Shadow of Mordor and Marvel's Spider-Man.

100% Completion Notes: I'm one of the few people who actually enjoys the riddler challenges and trophies strewn about the place. The combat/predator challenges were still a slog, though.