Infinite Wealth (Y8) fixed nearly every issue I had with its predecessor, Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Y7). Combat moves quicker and is mor dynamic, and you have more agency than you ever did in Y7. Jobs feel much more balanced, and skill bloat is much less of an issue now, as you have a limited number of cross-class ability slots.

Narratively, the game gets going much quicker and caught my attention basically right out the gate. No waiting for half the game for interesting things to start happening. This game also fixes a writing issue I had with Y7 (and a lot of other JRPGs coughpersonacough) where every party member had to chime in for every single interaction. Dialogue flows much better as a result.

The new party members are all great; thought it's a shame we're likely to not get Tomizawa in Y9 onwards as he is modelled and voiced after a celebrity. Being able to play as Kiryu in both turn-based combat and brief bursts of classic brawler combat is a treat.

Still need to finish the last couple chapters, but Y8 has already risen to my all-time favorites list, and is one of few I would unashamedly rank a 10/10.

...However, there is one major sore spot for me for Y8: fuck the publishers for once again putting NG+ and fucking DIFFICULTY SELECTION behind a $20 DLC. Sure it comes with a bonus dungeon, but NG+ and difficulties should be a vanilla feature, all the time, no exceptions.
It's a ridiculous thing for Sega to lock behind a paywall. Outside of Japan we barely avoided its equivalent with Y7 baking it into the Western release, but Sega should be ashamed of themselves for pulling the same stunt twice, and doing so worldwide this time.

The most overrated Star Wars game? This received strong reviews back in the day, is still held in high regard by the fanbase, and secondhand copies could go for pretty high up until it got rereleased on the Switch and PS4. I remember finding mine in a store years ago for roughly $21 and thinking that was a steal. Little did I know that when I would finally get around to playing it much later, I wouldn't end up having much fun.

Let me be clear, I absolutely LOVE what they were going for tonally. From the insurmountable odds, enemies that were fodder in the movies being turned into legitimate threats, and the occasional splatters of alien blood on your visor Republic Commando expertly captures the tone of a gritty war film. It does a better job of showing a darker, more desperate side of the franchise's conflicts from the perspective of an expendable grunt while still managing to stay true to that classic Star Wars feel than the likes of Rogue One or Andor have. At least until that ill-fitting credits song. If you thought Godsmack was out of place in Prince of Persia, let me tell you mid-2000s misplaced teen angst had nothing on this.

Unfortunately, the actual gameplay isn't as enjoyable. RC is a tactical first-person shooter that doesn't get the shooting, combat sequences, or arguably even the squad control mechanics right. I get you aren't supposed to be a gung-ho killing machine in these types of games, but I at least expected to be able to AIM properly. Targeting with the right joystick is bafflingly stiff, awkward, and clunky making it hard to hit exactly what you want to even with the overly large reticle taking up the center of the screen. To put it simply, Halo this ain't. That's a real problem when the campaign inexplicably wants to try its hand at being a regular FPS at points by stripping you of your AI-controlled allies and forcing you to go it alone. The poor gunplay and speed at which your enemies can kill you can make these stretches quite a drag.

Luckily, most of the time you're with your three AI teammates. It doesn't necessarily make things all that much better, but battles are less of a pain. Well, before they start artificially increasing the difficulty by continuously throwing more of the bullet-sponge special foes at you at once, that is. Your fellow members of Delta Squad are impressively competent on the battlefield. Honestly, the most you'll ever really have to do is point them to spots where they can lay down sniper or heavy weapons fire, focus all their attention on a specific threat, and occasionally tell them to heal up. For the most part though, they can handle themselves and whatever danger is headed their way so there's not always a reason to give them any direction at all. It kind of makes it hard to be excited about anything when you realize the action almost exclusively consists of walking forward until reaching the next area where you'll need to hunker down for a bit to fend of repetitive waves of hostiles, and that in most cases the smartest strategic leadership decision you can make is to just simply sit back and let your subordinates take care of everything. Especially in the stages where ammo pickups are scarce often leaving you with dry blasters. Also, I mean, come on... Ammo? In a SW title?

A shame, because the settings these firefights take place in are genuinely fantastic. From the massive canyons on Geonosis to the sprawling bowels of a Republic capital ship and the immense forest that is planet Kashyyyk, the level design has such a way with scope so that you're fully aware of exactly how VAST these locations actually are in a manner I've not personally experienced from another piece of Star Wars media despite the linear paths you travel through them. I caught myself wishing there was more going on with the writing to accompany the sights. RC is solely focused on delivering its central premise alone, so there's not much happening narratively. Delta are an amusing bunch, particularly Scorch who sounds and acts so similar with his constant sarcastic lines like Grif from Red vs. Blue I legitimately had to check to see if they were voiced by the same person (they're not, it's some dude named Raphael Sbarge), but they really aren't given a whole lot to do. There are some interesting lore tidbits such as the revelation that bullets were once a thing in the galaxy far, far away, and while I wasn't expecting something too significant from an EU story I did at least think there would be a semi-decent plot to keep me invested. Yet, after progressing through the three different scenarios you're treated to a hilariously abrupt conclusion that feels less as if intended to hammer home the theme of stepping into the role of a highly dispensable soldier, and more along the lines of they ran out of development time to include the final mission or two.

Republic Commando isn't a bad game. It simply never does anything it sets out to do all that well. Except maybe multiplayer, it's most praised aspect on release. Naturally however, the servers have long since been shut down so on the OG Xbox in 2024 that's far from a selling point. Even if you were up to go the split-screen route, man, I'd have to recommend you just choose Halo instead any day. As a hardcore fan of the property, I view this as an altogether skippable and forgettable experience. Of all the prequel era SW I've been annoyed by seeing get demoted to "Legends" status (because it's not like Disney is doing anything with this period of the franchise anyways), I'm not too sour about this one.

5/10

I am, I am in shock, right now I am not well, I am freaking out, I have never had such a long and beautiful journey as with Cyberpunk 2077. This has been the best thing to close the year. It's too beautiful that I can't explain it in words.
I started this game, 14 days ago, 2 whole weeks playing it, no other game, just Cyberpunk. Em embark on the journey with the male 'V', doing identical to the 'V' from the trailers and the cover, having a little idea of the game, just simple photos that I had seen, without any spoilers, nor did I know what I was going to game, I had not seen trailers, or absolutely anything. An unknown journey. From the first day I loved it, many people used to talk about the bugs, but now this game is incredible, I haven't had a single bug in 40 hours of playing, only slow map loading, textures, lower FPS in very concentrated places with a lot of shots and that's it, but that's from playing it on PS4, so I don't care, it didn't bother me either, because it barely happened.
V a totally charismatic protagonist, with great aspirations who wants to be great, a legend in Night City with his friend Jackie, but Jackie... ends up dying (rest in peace Jackie...) and V a while later, also. He is resurrected thanks to the relic, where the "mind" of Johnny Silverhand was, the charismatic, selfish, open-minded, and somewhat crazy asshole, he doesn't give a shit about everything.

And this is when V's true journey begins.
This game is amazing, it's... Perfect in its own way.
The mission style is not repetitive, you have dozens of options to complete any mission, stealth, hacking, being aggressive and more.
Quite frenetic and incredible gameplay, good controls, good skill system, good weapons and something totally beautiful and that is modifying your body with chrome. It is impossible to get bored playing.
Dozens of secondary missions which are part of the story, secondary missions that are not in vain, that have a great contribution to the story and its different endings, each one different from the other, each one with a different plot, with something different , nothing repetitive, nor monotonous, everything perfectly balanced. The best secondary missions I have seen. Apart from the orders and etc, which are incredible too.
The open world is exquisite, you can do countless things, explore, kill, steal, shop or just eat something. A great map, but not too great, just enough to not be tedious. Fast travel and cars/motorcycles are very good, the driving in this game is quite good, although the physics are a bit strange.
Also the scanner is great, I mean, the gameplay is perfect, it's beautiful, it's extremely incredible in all its fullness.
The radio is quite good, it has variety to pass the time going from one place to another, you don't need to put on music yourself.
The calling and messaging system is incredible, I love it and it is very interesting. It makes you appreciate each of the characters more.

Let's talk about the side Cast, it is one of the best I have seen in gaming, all the characters full of life, with very good performances, each one with their conflicts, aspirations, personality and charisma, each of them are unique and incredible. It's like you're his real friends.

V's journey... It is too emotional, every time you advance and spend more time with him, the more connection you have with him, the more comfortable you are, the more you like him, the more you connect with him. V... He could be a real person, he is a very human and realistic character, whether it be his conflicts, charisma, attitudes, actions, etc., it doesn't matter, V is perfect in that sense, too human for me. V's development is especially beautiful, someone who aspired to everything greater, wants to be remembered, admired, to be a legend, someone who just... Wants to live and be happy with his people (at least in my game). And then Johnny, an incredible deuteragonist, an arrogant man, who wants to live again, he doesn't care about V, then be a friend of V, someone who accepts his death, accepts the evil he has done, thanks to V, Johnny achieves his redemption, realizes everything and even in the last moments does not try to claim V's body, he simply wants V to be happy, follow his path, and he will go where he belongs.


I would love to talk about the love relationships in this game and that's what I'm going to do. If Cyberpunk 2077 has something special, it is this. Something that is too original and full of life, where every act counts, where every decision and word you say counts, and not just in relationships, in the entire game.
When I played Judy's act, she is a truly charming character, when she finished her act, I even missed her for V. As you already know, with male V nothing can be done with Judy.
But everything changes when Panam Palmer arrives, she had heard that she was better than Judy, something I highly doubted, but in the end... Oh man, I have really ended up falling in love with Panam, a nomad who her help for a job and then the other way around, a beautiful trip with her, the choices and dialogues are very natural, and you are the one who gets Panam. A girl on the outside who is tough and with a lot of charisma, but on the inside, deep down she is sweet, loving, sentimental, someone who needs to be protected, someone who needs V, a totally beautiful girl inside and out, a girl with many internal conflicts, and the beautiful thing about this is that we can help her with all her problems, make her feel better and make her do the same for us. The sentimental moments between the two of them are special, they are unique. And there is a very beautiful moment, a memory of V's past that Panam remembers, next to the bonfire, looking at the stars, Panam says alone "for Jackie", that simple moment is incredible, brother, how could I not love to this girl?
I don't give a shit about all the other relationships, Panam is something special, which interweaves a very realistic and personal bond with V and the player, which doesn't happen with the other relationships. Panam is different. I want a Panam in my fucking life, universe, PLEASE. I felt like she almost loved me, something too personal (I definitely fell in love with a pixel).


Leaving those things aside, now to the serious stuff.
Cyberpunk faces complex themes, about morality, duty, responsibility, or simply the purpose of life, existentialism, why we are here, or absurdism, ikigai, Utilitarianism, redemption, self-denial, freedom complex and hundreds more, maybe everything, maybe nothing. Cyberpunk does not have a very complex story, nor does it try to be very deep, it is simple, but good and very well executed, the important thing is the journey.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a test. To see if players are going to enjoy the trip and the journey of their character V, to create all these affiliations with all these characters across Night City, to hate, bond, care for, love. Or if they're just gonna waste it all just to get through the game's main story, and get on this site or I don't know where else to write that they've finished the game and give a rating to it. The game tests you. It makes you confront the dilemma of whether you should go a bit slower on the road and enjoy the surroundings. Or if you will just floor it to the finish line and call it a day.
The dilemma of the ticking death clock on V is what truly makes this game special, we're faced with the inevitability of death and it forces the player and V to make the most of their time, there is no guarantee that V will survive and find a way out so we work under the assumption that we must make the most of our time on this Earth before we die. That limited time is what makes this game special to me, we're forced to live life to the fullest and in spite of all of that V keeps fighting, not only for themselves, but for their friends, the ones they lost, and for a better future, even if it's a future that they won't live to see.
The decisions in this game are quite a tense point, something that makes you think and can even overwhelm you, you feel that your life falls into it, and it is something true, V's life falls into your own hands, a perfect representation of own reality, something that makes the game special, they are not simple choices, they are choices that make you question everything, absolutely everything, but you have to keep fighting. It makes you rethink everything.

And the ending I got... I'm personally proud of it, I haven't seen the other endings, but this one is supposed to be the best one and I definitely don't care if it's the best one or not. This is the end of MY own story. I wouldn't change it for anything, nor would I play the other endings, at least not now, I'm too satisfied with how MY STORY has concluded. Making me rethink all my choices I've made, thinking about whether I did the right thing or not, thinking about everything. But it doesn't matter now. Cause the road has come to an end. And I was glad I made stops on the way. I really wish I could just delete my memory and replay the game from the start. All in all, Cyberpunk 2077 is finally here.
I have felt this game entering my soul completely, the ending is destructive, destructively beautiful, every decision I made, I thought it was going to be wrong, every decision I made my pulse accelerated and it made me nervous, I didn't want to leave, many difficult decisions They are put in the last missions, I have never felt something like this, playing and choosing options with all the fear in the world, as if it were real life. In the network, with Alt and Johnny, I was nervous, overwhelmed, restless, but happy at the same time, also confused and a little sad. But he always chose to live, whether in real life or in Cyberpunk, I want to live, and V deserves to live, simply a leap into the void where I don't know what will happen. But in the end it surprised me, yes... I'm very happy. It is definitely, along with TLOU2, the game that has had the most emotional impact on me, I have cried like never before, I have felt feelings like in no other game, I have felt feelings that I have not felt in TLOU2 for example, a bomb of feelings, whether from happy to the fear. An unforgettable experience, a beautiful experience.
(After two more weeks. I love this fucking game, platinuming this game has been a beautiful journey... well, I haven't platinumed it, I'm missing a trophy... a loseable trophy (fuck you Takemura), one day I'll get it, but for now I'm happy with this, this game is a game that everyone should play, it has a bad reputation for its output errors, but everything is fine now, It's an underrated masterpiece, it made me cry like I was dying lmfao, No ending has impacted me more than the ending of Panam, although the end of Johnny, not the end of Johnny and Rogue, the end of Johnny/V/Panam, has destroyed me too, it has impacted me a lot, I love Johnny and V too much, this is wonderful)

+72h

Cyberpunk 2077 is one of my favorite games right now.
Cyberpunk 2077 is full of incredible messages, it has taught me many things, many values and teachings, small and big things, but important, especially V and Johnny. Communication between relationships, sincerity and honesty, shame, never giving up, art, every decision in your life counts, the fact of continuing to fight, being yourself, and many more things, Cyberpunk is going to change me in little aspects, and it will. is already doing in some aspects.
Fuck you.

To finish a perfect dialogue, for a perfectly imperfect game.


"𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑏𝑦𝑒 𝑉. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔."

- 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝

I know that I am not the type of player who gets overly bogged-down by performance when playing a game but I want to start out with a single, very clear comment: even if you think Cities: Skylines II is the exact game for you, do not play it now. To be clear, this isn't even purely because of technical performance either; balance is still in need of being tuned within the sim.

Leading up to its release, I was longingly looking forward to the city-builder. Despite concerns around technical performance, I leaped in. Pre-release material showed that it wasn't the EA-style The Sims-style reset of a game where the new iteration reverts back to 1.0 with little improvements and some steps backwards to gameplay. Cities: Skylines 2 comes out swinging, packing in seasons, additional transportation options, expanded road tools and systems which were added in previous expansions, all now rolled into the base game. The visual updates are pleasant, even if you have to turn them down to get the game to run and your trees look like potatoes, painted green, with a stick shoved up their behinds. The foundations of Cities: Skylines II are great and I think this could be a great game with staying power.

That's fine and all, but what's missing? Well... the new traffic system implemented breaks the game. In an effort to create "real" drivers or pedestrians, the game allows for illegal traffic maneuvers and jaywalking. Big deal, right? Well... pedestrians refuse to use ramps or stairs so if there's a busy intersection, there's no way to divert pedestrians away from it. Cars driving down a road in rush-hour traffic will sometimes hold up traffic as they wait for a gap to do an illegal u-turn. Added a bus lane? Cool, it'll be filled with more cars than busses. I can only assume this was done either 1) by mistake or 2) so they can introduce a KGB-themed DLC that allows you disappear dissidents to a gulag. It's great to be able to add or remove crosswalks or stoplights and I appreciate the new road building tools. However, there's additional refinement I found myself wanting such as left-turn lights or being able to control what are or are not turn lanes in an intersection instead of the game automatically assigning it. The unfortunate truth is that the previous iteration had mods which supported this and now they're about 50% of the way to implementing back that same functionality with no current support for mods.

All that comes back to the initial point: wait. The technical performance will improve. They'll add in the mod support. The pedestrians will finally use a bridge. There's a million small issues that make me want to like this game and can't play because the sim breaks as soon as the town gets above 40k people. I do have confidence with the team and their desire to do right by the customer eventually and provide the support needed. I just wish a lot of the balance and performance had been hammered out before release.

Loved the premise; wished it were longer!

Putting random objects in a bottomless pit is up there as one of the most satisfying experiences a person can have, and this game captures that feeling exquisitely. Appearances are deceiving (I should know) when you first start this low-poly, colorful indie title. From the start, one of our main characters Mira engages in a typical run-of-the-mill, duck emoji-filled texting conversation with our other protagonist, her boss: a scarf wearing raccoon named BK. His nonchalant attitude would seem the perfect fit for running the titular Donut County's donut shop; however, one glaring issue arises regarding what BK defines as a "donut." Donuts, to this particular raccoon, require no dough and consist of a gapping hole in the ground that grow increasingly larger as it swallows everyone and everything that gets in its way. And it's addictively entertaining!

We, as the player, get to live out our fantasies as a unstoppable giant hole - completely overpowered. And that is simultaneously my favorite aspect of this game and my least favorite. Majority of the time the game feels like it plays itself - not much thinking happens outside of a few levels that contain logic puzzles. And a large percentage of puzzles can be solved relatively quick.

The loop consists of a story cutscene where our cast of goofy animals banter about how BK got himself and the rest of the town trapped 999 feet below their town. Then, a flashback to when the "donut" was delivered to whatever character was the focus of the cutscene. Finally, the donut spawns in and we swallow objects with the hole until everything on screen is falling straight down into the hollow Earth. Extremely fun and extremely brief. Most levels will take no longer than a couple minutes to beat, even the hardest one should only set you back no longer than 5 minutes.

Five years later and it seems the developers do not have any more planned, which is a shame. There is a lot of potential here, but based on the game's attitude, the creators did their thing and that's that, tough luck if you want more lol (The creator is also a oceanologist studying more important matters). While funny occasionally, that type of approach gets old (especially with he humor); thankfully this is not a "dialogue-heavy" game. The goofy nature of the sound design helps lessen the more annoying moments. And the chilled-out soundtrack drives home the instinctual joy of putting things in a hole.

If you have a couple hours to burn, try this out - especially if you are a puzzle game fan. While not the most revolutionary title, it makes an impact through its gameplay and sound design. Maybe one day we'll revisit our hole-dropping, quadcopter driving, trash collecting friends in Donut County. Until then, to satisfy my hole related desires, I'll need to invest in shovels and a legion of trained raccoons...

I had an enjoyable time with this one! It's a 3-D geometric space shooter with unconventional controls that hamper the gameplay often. After a while, you get used to it but it was still pretty annoying at times relying solely on the stylus to control my movements.

Apparently, the story connects back to an older Nintendo game, one I was unfamiliar with until after I played this one. The AI sidekick does a decent job explaining the first one but it felt like it mentioned the events of that game way too often - it ended up making this feel unable to stand on its own. Graphics reminded me a lot of Star Fox which is nifty if you also enjoy that early 3-D geometry aesthetic.

Not a fan of when you do all the extras in the game and there is zero acknowledgment - what is the point in clearing out all the enemies and finding all warp gates? A hidden planet or enemy bestiary would have been nice. Final Boss can get frustrating but it is not hard to learn. Music and overall atmosphere kept me the most engaged - exploring planets and fighting off robots will never, not be something I find intense pleasure in doing.

I would say go try this out but Nintendo sucks so try your best to set sail and nab a digital copy. Can't say that I have ever played a game like this before and it kept me coming back!

Wowie zowie! A huge breath of fresh air for 2D Mario - proves there is still so much that can be done with series. The developers had so many ideas and they implemented all of them nearly flawlessly.This will go down as one of the best Mario games, no doubt. Unfortunately, there are a couple issues holding it back from perfection.

First, the positive: the online system is the greatest edition and needs to be in every Mario game from now on. Seriously, the amount of pure joy just interacting and playing with random people was an unforgettable gaming experience. Another point of perfection were the new models for existing characters and enemies - gorgeous. And do we even need to acknowledge that the music is fantastic as always? Now, the less than fantastic additions (but still great).

Badges open up a world of strategies readily available to use to conquer a challenging level, sometimes. Ultimately, I found myself using the same three badges over and over. And that strategy was enough to 100% the game. They will be fun to use for different types of speed runs though. There are some levels where the badges do not matter due to Wonder Power - that is a plus for me but others may dislike being unable to rely on the aid.

Art direction is the main issue, for me. While the game is gorgeous and the new models perfect, new enemies and the Flower Kingdom feel...off... There are more memorable interactions and moments that involve old enemies. Giant walking mushrooms and those buffalos are the only newcomers I can recall. All the others feel so bland. And the Flower Kingdom itself is no better. While individually, the levels are enjoyable, as a congruous world, it clashes at every turn compared to Super Mario World's Dinosaur Land. It was though there were a list of the types of levels they needed and plopped them all down right next to each other.

Overall, this is a must play game. So many ideas implemented in ways I would have imagined being in a platformer, let alone the sequel series to New Super Mario Bros. A huge cast can be a tad suffocating but it is nice to have so many options (although do we really need four Yoshis and Nabbit?). Bowser Jr. coming back for a boss fights is fine but I personally miss having a cast of Boss Enemies like in Mario 2 and Yoshi's Island. Those are my final thoughts - and no matter my opinions, I could not put down my Switch and played it at least once a day since I picked it up. Go out and play this, may not be your GOTY, but it's the right direction for the 2D Mario series, cannot wait to see where it leads.

This was not my first Fallout experience, but it is probably my favorite overall. It's really difficult to pick a favorite between Fallout, Fallout 2, and New Vegas. However, I've always found myself drawn towards the first game for a multitude of reasons. The first is I believe the first Fallout has the best overall story and progression of any of the games. While there's not a plentitude of factions like in New Vegas, there are still many different choices to be made that will greatly impact the sort of ending you get in this game. I also feel that the main antagonist in this game is the most unique and interesting one's I have ever seen, Fallout or otherwise. While it definitely doesn't feel as smooth to play anymore, this game is a true classic, and deserves the time of day for any RPG or CRPG fan. If you've never played either of the two CRPG Fallout games, I would definitely give them a chance.