Let me just say right up front; I put about 12-ish hours into this game. So obviously this is not a comment on the whole experience, beginning-to-end.

But I have to say; I have had no fun with this. And I mean that literally, not in any kind of hyperbolic sense. I have had zero actual enjoyment with this game, for a dozen hours. It is an ugly, grey, lifeless RPG with mediocre action and not a single interesting conversation to be had with any of the people I've met so far. And the UI might as well have been designed by an alien. I have no clue how Bethesda can be this deep in the game and still be making menus and inventories like this.

Miss me with any "well it takes 85 hours to get good" shit. I don't watch two seasons of a TV show to get to the goods stuff, so I certainly won't tolerate that kind of thing in games. You can make a compelling intro, even if your game is generally a slow burn - I'm fine with that. But aesthetically, narratively, and gameplay-wise this thing offers almost nothing in its opening act.

Psi-Ops is not a perfect game, but it might be my perfect game.

A wonderful, fun-first action game where the entire selling point is giving the player a thrilling set of powers that are actually fun to use. The giddy thrill of rag-dolling enemies with your superpowers eventually gives way to a much deeper experience. Levels are excellently designed, allowing you to really experiment in either chaos or fine strategy. I managed to skip an entire puzzle by using the game's unique mix of powers and physics, in a manner not unlike something you'd see in a twitter video of Breath of the Wild. Despite its short runtime, there is a lot of room for experimentation.

The story is nothing - or at least it seems that way at first. By the end, the cheese factor had won me over and I was genuinely a bit gutted to see it end on a cliffhanger. Not because of the characters, but because it just feels like this is a bygone era of games - and just like this story, we will probably never get back to it.

Despite some wonky set-pieces in the fourth quarter, this is a wonderful game that you could breeze through in one session -- and I hope some of you do.

Was hovering over the 'uninstall' prompt for this game on my Steam Deck, and mulled over if I'd ever give it another chance. Maybe with a few more patches or something?

But on reflection, no, there's not really much here. A totally soulless, ugly game. Before I even hit the two hour mark, I was having to check off a laundry list of tasks to unlike something as basic as a glide for my character. Who enjoys this? I like a grindy 'podcast game' as much as the next man, but this was just so dry. I already felt I was playing on autopilot, with no actual sense of wonder or excitement about this open world Gotham.

The combat is okay at first and feels like they've made some neat distinctions from the usual Arkham fare - but the more you mess with it, the more you realize how shallow it is. Holding a button for a heavy attack is certainly different from Arkham, but not in a truly meaningful way, when everything else feels so similar.

We took Midway for granted, we really did.

While this didn't remind me why games are great quite as much as Chicago studio's previous game Psi-Ops; it is nonetheless a rip-roaring good time that put spectacle and action movie power fantasy before all else. The rag doll physics, the destructible uhhhh everything, the bullet time - it's everything you'd want from a 'be in the movie' type of shooter.

For the most part, the game's simplicity is tremendously charming. There isn't much to the gameplay but the levels are well designed enough, with enough contraptions to send your enemies flying through, that you won't really care.

Even with a relatively short run-time, the boredom does start to set in in the final third as bullet spongey enemies and a lack of fresh objectives take their toll.

For about three-ish hours; I felt like this was a game of the year contender. It has some of the best, most viscerally satisfying shooting of any FPS I've played in a decade. The guns look and sound incredible, the feedback you get as enemies flail backwards because you've slide-tackled them before unloading dual pistols into their chest -- incredible. The bullet time, the cloak, the slick enemy A.I. - it all rocks.

While the story and nuts-and-bolts of the campaign aren't super important; I really can't overstate how bad the third act of this game is. It deviates from everything great in the first half, and indulges in some really terrible impulses.

There's an incredibly hokey, shoe-horned level that I won't spoil here, that basically tries to play off a popular internet horror trend, then there's two poor boss fights, followed by a cringey cutscene, and one more insane boss fight where half of the game's cool abilities are taken from you. It's a real shame, but it sapped my desire to replay the many many replayable sections.

As a media hub for fans in the pre-Youtube days, Bulletproof is kind of awesome. I was legitimately so excited to be able to play these music videos whenever I wanted -- as alien as that sounds now.

But beyond that, this is a pretty damn horrendous third person shooter and I can't believe I actually enjoyed the video game aspect of this package as a teenager. 50 moves at a glacial pace and you have to turn aim sensitivity all the way up to get a remotely decent aiming experience. There's some cool ideas on paper like taking human shields, interrogating enemies, and slick finishing moves -- but they're all either useless or broken in execution. Likewise there are some level design ideas that sound okay but the mechanics are just not well implemented at all. The cutscenes and story are actually pretty slick all things considered but lack subtitles so even they can't be properly enjoyed.

Oh well, I'll always have the memory of being 14 and watching the Poppin Them Thangs video on a loop.

The makings of a really excellent brawler but undercuts itself constantly. The main issue is the story and dialogue which start out rote and a bit eye-roll inducing, but gets worse and worse as it goes on. You can fast forward through dialogue when replaying a level, but I would LOVE that option on a first playthrough. It's surprisingly yappy and gets incredibly irritating.

The other aspects of the presentation are okay. It's not much to look at, but gets the job done in that regard with bloody kills and cool finishing animations. The soundtrack is solid at first but by the time you get to level 20 (of a slightly OTT 40) it'll all blend together as an unidentifiable collection of thumping dance music.

But the core of this is really good. Deep combat with tonnes of customisability and cool animations. You'll get that faux John Wick feeling we all crave. The game flourishes when it's kept simple; you and some dudes trading hands - an early level contained entirely in a bathroom is a good example. But there are a tonne of level gimmicks that just sort of get in the way. You're driving a boat or dodging a sniper or fighting mutants or suicide bombers (yeah) and some of that is fun and some of it is tiresome. There's a level where bikers are driving at you while you're still hand-to-hand fighting some other enemies and it's entirely too chaotic to really enjoy; and it undercuts the core fundamentals of the combat.

I'm shelving this for now, and may return later but I think it would have been better served at half as many levels (just cut all the gimmicks) and basically no talking.

After mastering the 2D and 3D environment, Nintendo somehow turned their attention to a game where you go upside down, inside out, switch between different gravities AND do it with motion controls -- and they made that feel natural and intuitive too.

There are a handful of times in Galaxy where you are fighting the camera. A HANDFUL! In a ten-ish hour playthrough of the core story. While briefly grating, that is actually a remarkable achievement given how ambitious and totally unique the level design is in this game. A real gem, that still feels fresh and inventive today.

[Steam Deck emulation notes: GREAT, for the most part. Mapping general motion controls to the right stick was no problem, but mapping 'tilt' controls (such as you'd use in the surfing level) was a bit of a nightmare. I was eventually able to map them to the right stick when I was using a wired 8bitdo controller -- but I have still, as of this writing, not been able to successfully map them to the Deck's own native controls, and I only found a bunch of Reddit threads where people had the exact same issue. So, to play this game to completion on the Deck, I would say it's mandatory to play it docked, with a wired controller - as sections where 'tilting' the wiimote to steer objects are unavoidable.]

While still in need of many, many tweaks and balances - this is the most exciting new online shooter I've played in years. The environmental destruction is visually thrilling but also gives each match a sense of dynamism and unpredictability. The different strategic options mean matches rarely feel the same, despite the limited number of maps.

The different weapons and classes are in desperate need of some fine-tuning and balancing, and the cosmetic options when you don't want to spend money are extremely limited - but the core game here is excellent.

What I love about Dredge is that its little bag of tricks is a lot deeper than you might think. The sanity effects, which you'll see more of if you sail at night or use too many special abilities, are varied and unpredictable - removing the sense that they're just a set of enemies and visual effects on a rotation. Two hours into the game I was accosted by a GHOST SHARK but I never saw one again for the rest of the playthrough. It's constantly surprising you positively and negatively.

Creepy vibes, a tough but fair economy to grapple with, and tonnes of secrets. Well worth the humble eight hour run time.

Just a note on the PS2 version of Pandora Tomorrow: this is a deeply cursed way to play this video game. The PC version was infamously on fire at launch, and I didn't feel like installing any mods to fix it (you also can't actually buy it digitally on any real storefront) - so I decided to try the PS2 version.

This game has maybe the worst loading I've ever experienced in a game. Almost every area is bookmarked by a load or a save; and saving isn't some quick thing with a little spinning icon on the bottom of the screen. You walk through a door, they throw a menu at you, you pick a memory card, you say 'yes I wish to save' and you sit there and watch it work. Then you walk into the next area and there's a load - and the loads are long.

Obviously some compromises were needed to get the beefy PC/XB version on PS2 but this is a bridge too far, to me. Especially having played the original game on PC and finding it to be a sleek, relatively modern experience despite its age.

Retiring this version forever, and I've decided I will jump through the hoops needed for PC because I don't want to skip this game outright.

A powerful, ambitious sequel. Tells a compelling story all its own, while also doing right by the ending of the first game -- which many would argue should have been left be. Its biggest failing is probably that same ambition that makes it feel so special; at times the pacing feels a bit drawn out and the lengthy run-time keeps you guessing.

Probably the best playing Naughty Dog game ever, as the marriage of their animation, AI systems, sound design, level design, and variety of play styles mesh beautifully.