I did not know what to expect going into Disco Elysium. I knew it was a CRPG and that the people of the internet loved, and thirsted over, the man in the orange jumpsuit on the cover. But not much else beyond that.

Finishing it some odd 20 hours later, I realized that this was easily one of the best written games I had ever played.

The world building in this game is phenomenal. Compared to many other games, the area you explore in the game is relatively small but everything little detail on the map just adds to the character of the town. It's run down and neglected. The pale as a concept is incredibly cool and these touches of science fiction make the game all the more interesting.

And characters! I can see why Kim is beloved, he is a so professional and cool, but also super lame in an incredibly endearing way. Klaasje was super chill and talking to her was a delight. The main character, is a complete mess and I love him for it. He is, unfortunately, quite relatable in many ways. The game beats you over the head with how much of a fuck up he are and completely redeems him in the end.

This was much longer but since I don't want this to be too long I'll tldr: the story was fantastic, the political themes are interesting and shows the pros and cons of many ideologies, Kim Kitsuragi can get it, and this should be played by anyone and everyone who has even a remote interest in story based video games. Absolutely fantastic.

Raphaël Colantonio’s decision to leave Arkane stemmed from wanting to get away from the bloated-ness and inefficiency of AAA game development – he often used the example of how chairs would take 2 days to model during the making of Prey 2017, while during the days of Arx Fatalis it was closer to 2 hours. So how’s his first experiment in scaling down to the indie realm gone? Pretty well, all things considered. I’ve felt for a long time now that Colantonio is one of the best game directors currently working and I’m happy to say that Weird West is another solid attestation to that, with the caveat that it takes a good while before it clicks.

For anyone who’s familiar with immersive sims, the most immediately offputting part about Weird West is its camera perspective. I almost fell prey to this myself, but once you become more comfortable with the game, you’ll start to realise that all the juicy emergent goodness that makes this design philosophy (or, if you dare, this genre) tick is still there, even if you’re not witnessing it from the same point of view as your character. More than once, I set off an unintended chain reaction of events via independent but interlinking gameplay systems that ended up revealing a new path through an area or which allowed me to complete a quest in a roundabout, unscripted way, and these sorts of organic, player-directed experiences are what Looking Glass Studios ultimately predicated the term upon in 1997. Where so many games popularly touted as living up to the definition just don’t, Weird West surely does.

Environmental interactivity arguably doesn’t quite approach the craziness of Prey 2017, but Weird West’s integration of status effects into its physics engine gives it a leg of its own to stand on. I’m a huge fan of how soaked containers dynamically fill up with water for loads of reasons, but special mention also goes to the sheer amount of stuff you can set on fire, because there’s nothing quite like accidentally burning down an entire farmstead or patch of forest in the process of fending off an ambush. I like how these properties are applied to character abilities too because of the room for experimentation it allows, especially when you combine several at once. I particularly enjoy secreting poison pools as the Pigman and then setting them alight with explosive shotgun shells to make a porky mini-nuke on demand, but the beauty of games like this is that I'll probably look back on a current favourite tactic like that and eventually think of it as rudimentary compared to what's possible when you dig deeper into its systems.

Weird West’s story is more interesting than it’s being given credit for on here, but I don’t blame anyone for tapping out before it gets to the point where you can say that. I get the need to ease people into an unorthodox setting with a vanilla premise, but Jane Bell’s narrative hook goes beyond vanilla and pivots itself on something that you as a player have no reason to care about. Jane might be fussing about where her husband is, but I’m not. Who is he to me? It runs the risk of driving a wedge between the player and their character, but the other four protagonists (especially the one immediately after Jane) more than make up for this in terms of intrigue and how elegantly they fill the “blank slate player avatar” role, albeit not quite as perfectly as Morgan Yu.

In terms of niggles, the movement comes to mind. Dishonored 1 and Prey 2017 have some of the most liberating, intrinsically satisfying movement in the medium – you explore every nook and cranny of Dunwall and Talos I not because you're told to, but because it feels so good to do it that you naturally want to. Despite the impressive size of its world, I never felt that same enticement in Weird West because its movement options are so paltry in comparison. And how’s about those character portraits not matching their models? Like, at all? I’m willing to chalk this up to a case of “small indie company please understand,” because I can’t imagine anyone actively wanted lean, bearded, grizzled veteran gunslingers to share the same in-game appearance as (oddly abundant) overweight, alcoholic Asian women. It’s true that this camera angle allows for some mental abstraction on the player’s part – Fallout 1&2, both big influences on Weird West, use one animation for loads of different stuff – but past a certain point, I feel like I’m being asked to deny what’s in front of my eyes. Or even what’s happening around me, sometimes, considering how often my companions would try attacking invincible children or be rendered immobile by an ankle-high step, the deadliest of all the west’s creatures.

In the grand scheme of things, though, issues like these are probably worth looking past. Immersive sims have been around for longer than I’ve been alive, and in that time, there's not been nearly as many breakout hits or unambiguous commercial successes as you'd assume from the notoriety of examples like Deus Ex or System Shock; we’re pretty fortunate to still be getting any new spins on the formula at all. And as a new spin on the formula, Weird West’s definitely an impressive first showing for WolfEye, but also one with more than a few holdovers of the days when its staff were still under the watchful eye of Bethesda’s investors – hopefully their newfound freedom permits them to become a bit bolder and weirder from here on out.

Solid game that's left lacking as a result of the "Zelda" branding. It's a vast departure for the series that mostly works, but not always.

Biggest issue with the game is the weapon and armor systems. The scaling and durability system lead to situations where the world is not truly open.

I had some incredible moments exploring the world, but wasn't left overly impressed by the game overall. Maybe the sequel will knock it out of the park!

Pros:
+ perhaps the first true MetroidBrania ever created
+ smart inversion of the monomyth and tired video game clichés
+ unique open universe setting and visual style
+ fresh interpretation of the time loop concept
+ deep integration of gameplay, setting, and story
+ often ingenious, four-dimensional puzzle design
+ if something looks possible, it usually is (Sun Station!)
+ idiosyncratic translation mechanic and good writing
+ optional areas of the universe enrich the narrative
+ secret endings are surprising and often meta-textual
+ easter eggs at every corner, even on the startup screen
+ fitting soundtrack and sound design
+ incredible central track that is deeply interwoven with the gameplay

Cons:
- controls are iffy and take a lot of time getting used to
- hidden "meditation" mechanic should be available from the start
- not all gameplay elements are properly explained (e.g. the ship's emergency button)
- ship log could offer more hints after a certain time without progress
- a customizable note or marker system would eliminate issues with orientation
- CO2 meter is often just a bit too limiting
- character design is an acquired taste
- final loop is exciting but exceedingly difficult to pull of
- the final image and its implications are a bit cynical

Magic Moment(s): Too many to count. The first landing and gravity mechanics on Giant's Deep, the complex mechanics and secrets of the Quantum Moon, the tense moments during the final loop, the final musical sequence.

Verdict: Outer Wilds takes place in its own unique universe, far beyond the tired heroic clichés of the medium, and rewards intelligence and curiosity in fresh, exciting ways. The incredible team at Mobius Digital here not only (co-)invents the new genre of the MetroidBrania, but almost perfectly presents its vision of the possibilities of video games. To think that this is their first outing is almost unbelievable, as is the pure quality in all departments on display here. A true milestone in the history of gaming and a must play.

After a month playing this, completing all the quests, unlocking all the achievements, endings, secret bosses, enjoying and raging I can assure you that this game really is Dark Souls 4.
Nah seriously, it's Dark Souls 4 but in open world.
....
The joke isn't funny anymore.
But the game is fun. It's a Dark Souls base mixed and improved by the others games of the franchise and it has way more content from the beggining than the others Souls games.
It is true that a lot of bosses are reused to fill some dungeons. Some mechanichs, combat style and even camera issues could be better or changed and not just replicated.
Even so if you like the From Software games, of course you're gonna love Elden Ring.
And it is the most accessible Souls for the new players too.

The Wonderful 101 is once again Platinum at its best, creating a wholly unique and masterfully executed action combat system that we haven't really ever seen before. The game does itself so many favors by not taking itself seriously, allowing it to go so completely over the top that its impossible not to smile.

With the Wii U gamepad, the 'drawing' system to create the different weapons worked really well. Each weapon is unique in its own right and exceedingly fun to use, along with every other tool you have at your disposal. The game also runs and looks great for a Wii U game, especially considering how much is going on at once on the screen. To this day, Wonderful 101 has what I think is one of the best final bosses in video game history, being so memorable due to how long it is, but in a good way, perfecting encapsulating the game's absurdity and leaving you with just about as climactic as a finish as you could hope for in an action game. Platinum is truly the king of action, and The Wonderful 101 is just another example of their mastery of the genre.

9/10