Remember when life was fun? When you just did things? Not even thinking about them, you just DID THINGS. And it was great.

You'd swing on the swing because it was fun. You'd dig in the dirt because it was fun. You'd play with action figures or dolls because it was fun. You'd throw things because it was fun. You'd run fast because it was fun.

It was fun because you were young, and you were a kid, and your mind wasn't developed. It was fun because the world is designed for fun. Everything here is ostensibly awesome, and experiencing all of it is objectively cool. You understood that as a child. Adulthood robs us of that innocence, of that silliness, of that lack of caring about anything in the name of fun.

This is that. This is fun. This is "make ball big" fun. It doesn't need a point or a deeper meaning. It's just fun on its own. I will be sad if I never experience something this fun again.

Gran Turismo 7 is what happens when somebody has so much fun knowing that they could that they didn’t stop to think whether they should. Kazunori Yamauchi’s borderline fetish for awkward design choices reaches its ugly peak with a game that doesn’t know what it wants to be.

The career mode is basically a barely 10-Hour long slog of fetch quests, with the odd side objective thrown in to stop you from getting bored. Most of them involve going to a location on the World Map and using one of its facilities, a process that takes approximately thirty seconds.

This is made more frustrating by the fact that Gran Turismo 7 seems to assume that the player has never seen a car in real life nor knows what a car is, with tutorials that are so patronising and AI that are so catastrophically slow that it feels like an insult directed towards long-time fans of the series. Even after completing all of the menu books, which unlocks a bunch of harder “Expert Level” races, the AI still pose little to no challenge.

Buying cars to use in races requires a level of grinding I have never seen before in a racing game, thanks to pitifully low payouts for many of the game’s early races. Some of the post-endgame events are more generous, with WTC800 at Sardegna currently the best race in the game for grinding cash, but the sometimes obscene prices for cars again makes it a slog. Legendary Cars Dealership, you know who you are.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. GT7 is arguably the best demonstration of the PlayStation 5’s capabilities, with stunning visuals tied together by gorgeous lighting and almost nonexistent loading times thanks to lightning-fast SSD technology.

The physics are satisfying and direct, with punishing consequences for pushing too hard. However, it never feels unfair except for the odd car or two. Those are the exception, rather than the rule.

Sport Mode is a clusterfuck, but it’s a fun clusterfuck. Racing in the No DR/SR Tracking races is beautiful carnage, with paint being traded for several laps straight, whilst the ranked races are generally a little bit calmer if still unhinged at times and really help with practicing close-quarters racing if you can find a lobby that doesn’t have too many morons.

Finally is something that was missing from Gran Turismo Sport: A sense of ownership. Every car is like a Tamagotchi, with three base stats that deteriorate as you drive them - Oil, Engine and Chassis. Over time, you have to perform maintenance on these cars, which makes you feel like you truly are the owner of a custom-built Toyota GR86 that pumps out almost 400hp through that fully customisable Manual transmission you installed.

In Gran Turismo 7, cars are not just your primary means of competition - They are living, breathing creatures with a heart and soul. And that’s what the game tries to teach you during those agonising 10 hours of listening to some nondescript Italian man tell you how Rallying works, even though you own or have owned every single game in the Colin McRae Rally/DiRT series and play them every single day.

Buy Gran Turismo 7, but only if you can live with a glorified 10 hour long tutorial. And you don’t mind Always Online DRM. Otherwise, something like Need for Speed or Forza is probably more your… Speed.

I worry that going full open-world with this one was maybe not the correct choice. There's so much to see and do, and I found myself having the same issue as I did with Witcher 3 (minus disliking the dev team, I mean), being able to go anywhere and everywhere from the start means burning out before you decide it's time to do the main quest.
This wouldn't be an issue if the goals were presented in the same way as BotW, prioritizing exploration with bosses staying the same scale with a different flavor of challenge, but that's not possible with the way fromsoft games work.
I would honestly prefer a map formatted more like, dare I say it, the new pokemon games, i.e. a large open area with full freedom of exploration that then narrows into a boss fight or two before then reopening into another, much larger area. It's really close to being like that, at least the first 6~ hours are, but it opens up just a little too much when you realize there are infinite tangents to follow in any given direction and quickly forget what you were doing story-wise.

I was going to write a big long review about this game, its relation to the series' current standing, and how it relates back to arguably the most beloved era in the series' franchise and how it experiments with a very tired formula, in its very rough around the edge ways. However, I spent the past like two days completing the dex, reliving the true glory days of this franchise of wasting hours of my life hunting for the same god forsaken Spiritomb, and am very tired, so I'll keep it brief.

This game is very flawed, and if you're not super invested in the Sinnoh region or era of games, I'm not sure if this would appeal a lot to you. This game looks ugly, I would agree, but also so does most every other large scale game not helped by Monolith Soft on the Switch right now, and honestly, I don't really care. I love No More Heroes 3 more everyday, and that game looks ugly as sin. And I would concede that the game can be repetitive, and if that is not your thing, more power to you.

I think this game is wonderful. I'm definitely talking from a place of nostalgia, but I think this game perfectly encapsulates all the stuff I loved from Pokemon Platinum. The fact this even exists was like the most mind blowing reveal ever to me. It really focuses in on the mythology and kind of mystery and creepiness that Sinnoh region exudes. And expanding that idea into a more primitive open world, where the world is more openly hostile and you have to put in the research to better understand it is wonderful. Catching every Pokemon is a nightmare, but I'm a Gen 4 fan so I'm used to being beaten up like this. This game also just ends on a fantastic note, the true final challenges are some of the best encounters they've put up.

I don't really know what the future for this franchise is moving forward. A year ago it felt pretty miserable, but after this and the seemingly warm response to the new generation, it seems its bright. I think the fact the franchise was actually willing to give something so weird a shot like this was a smart move, and I greatly enjoyed my time with it. It is far from perfect, but it reminded me a lot of simpler times, and for that I commend and respect it greatly, even if I can understand if others would disagree.

deeply uncomfortable in how realistic it portrays abusive mother/child relationships, definitely the best I’ve seen from this medium and maybe only better depicted in paul thomas anderson’s boogie nights or ti west’s pearl, maybe joyce chopra’s smooth talk.

for a game that basically has no gameplay to speak of I found the whole central mechanic pretty good and very emblematic of the way in which people float in and out of ur life in ur late teens and early 20’s

good new year game :3

this is utterly grim, nvidia rtx remix is to gaming what ai generated images are to art. the aesthetic of portal is completely neutered in favor of smudgy hi-res textures and overblown lighting.

not to mention that the new visuals actively detriment the original game's visual guiding and design!!! i've replayed this game a ton and i actually couldn't tell where to go sometimes because the visual clutter introduced by raytracing was so awful.

how excellent that nvidia has blessed us with the ability to make games look like unreal engine nintendo hire this man type shit.

Y'know what? This one lives up to the hype. Celeste is fantastic, seamlessly mixing punishing platforming with sharp storytelling for an excellent indie package.

From the gameplay perspective, it is fantastic. The control set is simple to learn, nearly impossible to master, and the game never ceases to push you as it introduces ever-more-creative ways to utilize your new skillset. Nearly all of my 1338(!) deaths in my first campaign run were due to my lack of execution. I'll blame the last few on the d pad, which I forced myself to switch to for the first time ever to capitalize on Madeline's razor-sharp directional abilities. I quickly learned why the Switch Pro Controller's tape mod exists, and it seemed to help. Anyways, Madeline feels amazing to control on the d pad, aside from a few situational mechanics which the analog stick is definitely better for.

The level design complements these controls with excellent world-building. The pixel art is stunning, each level has a unique atmosphere, and complements it with at least one unique platforming component in each. I felt I had barely scratched the surface of each stage as I pushed on in my quest for the summit, and found myself yearning for my favorite mechanics from earlier stages as I approached the end. Frankly, I might've gone back before the story's conclusion if the later levels weren't among the best in the game, but I'll settle for looking forward to replaying because (1) I was garbage the first time through, (2) I only did the occasional (outstanding) strawberry challenge on the first run to keep the story going, and (3) I didn't even unlock the array of additional rooms/content/etc. from the other unlockables hidden in the levels. I am so excited to return to them someday, but my hands currently hurt from smacking the dash button so I need a break lol.

Celeste becomes, to reuse the phrase, outright punishing by the end. The levels demand excellence from the player, and a few places left my controller in danger of anger-induced destruction. Luckily for it, playing Celeste is so damn fun, even in frustrating sections, because you know that (1) you're in total control of everything you do, even if that control is leading to hundreds of deaths at the moment, and (2) your control has gotten you through every challenge up to that point and is helping you unravel the challenge ahead every time you fail. Beating difficult sections in Celeste feels great, and is often rewarded by story development. Before touching on that story, I think my favorite gameplay element of Celeste is this: the game proves to you that you're capable of doing things you never thought you could. This is certainly the hardest platformer I've played or even attempted, and I was intimidated as I approached the end levels in particular. Some rooms looked outright impossible, yet I prevailed and improved from each of them. It feels amazing.

All of these elements would add up to a great gaming experience on their own, but Celeste goes a step further with that story. It is so integrated into the experience, so tastefully implemented and written, and truly helps the player succeed in the game while provoking thoughts about it long after the credits roll. The added story element is what makes this game a must-play to me. Yes, it's a bit heavy-handed at times, but I also died 1300 times so I wasn't exactly going for a masterclass in subtlety as a player myself, either. You learn the game is about climbing a mountain in the first like 2 seconds, so don't expect it to ease off after that. Do expect it, however, to be uncharacteristically timely, challenging, and wholesome for a platformer.

This game is a beautiful package, and one every gamer should complete. Don't let the difficulty deter you. The game convinced me I could do it. And that I need a therapist.

Legends: Arceus is incredibly fortunate that it's a Pokémon game, as there's a lot here that would be nearly unforgivable in any other context.

The story has some nice moments, and a handful of enjoyable characters, but is achingly plodding, tedious in its repetitions, and ultimately overstays its welcome. The core gameplay loop often feels like it amounts to little more than making numbers go up and ticking boxes. The boss fights were actually pretty enjoyable to me just because they broke up the core gameplay loop, but they do amount to an E-Grade Souls rip-off with some pretty bad game-feel. In general I think game-feel is something Legends: Arceus really struggles with, especially when this aspect collides headlong into some of the ways where the game feels unfinished (attempting to traverse hills and edges of terrain makes this really obvious).

The game also feels like it is suffering a bit of an identity crisis at times; a common occurrence for the first half of the runtime is that you'll end up in a battle with some story character, you'll have six monsters to their one or two meaning you can never really lose no matter what happens, and then as soon as you win your party is healed for you. It's like they didn't want the trainer battles to define the game, but were too scared to move away from them to a more dramatic extent in case the lack of them might disappoint long-time fans.

Easily the most damning problem though, and the one I really can't shake, is the world design. These environments are just so lifeless, so lacking in intrigue. Big, bland, bumpy, and ultimately distractingly ugly, expanses that exist solely to plonk down critters upon. If you removed the Pokémon themselves from the equation it's hard to imagine people actually wanting to exist in these spaces, or having any real desire to explore them.

Legends Arceus has a lot wrong with it, and yet despite this it is still a Pokémon game and this does some serious heavy lifting in its favour. Despite all my many complaints, sometimes you just see the most perfect, adorable little critter wandering around in the wild, you crouch down in the grass to try and sneak up on it, and in that moment it's hard to harbour any ill-will against what's going on here. Pokémon has always been a franchise that carries with it an incredible amount of charm and the best moments in Legends Arceus are the ones where that charm shines through, and for all the game's faults I was left smiling more than this review might suggest just because it's hard to feel too bad when you get to spend your time vibing around all these lovely monster-friends.