On a pure mechanical level the game is quite fun, with a few minor control gripes (having to hold triggers to use different weapons as opposed to just being a toggle was a bit tiring for me) but DmC was poised as the mature reinvention of the franchise that would elevate the story telling of the series to a new level. And on this DmC falters, and it falters hard.

A takedown of capitalism that appears vicious at first but ends up ultimately toothless, every single woman in the game being mistreated in scores far beyond what happens in the original series, and the subtextual queerness of Dante from the original game being replaced with a textual "No Homo" punctuate the story of this game like bullets shot from dual demon pistols. Establishing a setting with all demons being unquestionably evil and all angels being unequivocally good results in a story with even less nuance than the original Devil May Cry. Why does Dante want to help humanity? It's the angel in him that tells him he should be nice to people.

A lack of emotional vulnerability cuts to the core of DmC and is ultimately its biggest weakness. A Devil May Cry game where our main character never actually cries because that would be "uncool" and not punk enough could never really understand what made the original games special.

An updated version of my favourite game ever. Despite combat that flows much smoother than the original game and character models that don't all have literally the exact same face, I still prefer the original game. Brother Nier is not a bad protagonist, but ultimately has so much less flavour in his writing compared to Father Nier. The relationship between him and Grimoire Weiss as a sort of struggling father/son dynamic is enjoyable but nowhere near as charming as the married couple bickering of Father Nier and Weiss in the Gestalt version of the original game. Almost all of the annoying elements of the original game (repetitive sidequests, annoying drop rates, overwhelming area reuse) are still present here with nothing really done to remedy them.

But true to the original, even when Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... shouldn't work, it ends up shining. When the new story content of this release shows up, it shows up in full force. The new characters slip in so seamlessly into the original plot that it's difficult to imagine them not being there. And the games new conclusion hit me so unbelievably hard that I cried. An utterly phenomenal game.

I livestreamed myself playing this with my good friend FrogCass on the day that the servers for this game and The 40th Day were to go down. It is probable that we are the last two people to play this game online all the way through.

Definitely the best of the trilogy, even if they took out just about all the mechanics that made Army of Two stand out from other co-op shooters of the era. The aggrometer, back to back and fistbumping are all gone, but the overall gunplay is significantly better, to the point where the play experience is a more enjoyable time.

The story remains about as trash as the previous Army of Two games, and manages to be littered with more homophobia and bad jokes than before. Big Boi is here for some reason, but they couldn't get André 3000, so instead known flat earther B.O.B. completes the faux Outkast that act as your support crew in this game. Alpha and Bravo manage to have even less characterisation than Rios and Salem and every single woman in this franchise manages to get killed before the credits roll. Overall a miserable story that has the gall to end on a sequel tease.

It's been a hot minute since I've been as conflicted about a game like this!

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with this game! The combat is a lot of fun, I love the demon summoning, the level design stands out as being more fun and consistent to explore compared to prior entries, and I think this game has the best gimmick non traditional gameplay segments of the trilogy. (Chapter 12 Boss I love you)

But man, I feel so torn up about this story. Everything feels so rushed despite this being the longest Bayonetta game by far, character motivation and development feels so sparse, and the game's ending goes for a somber tone that is totally unearned by the writing of the entire game up to that point. I think I hate how this game ends, and not just because of my obvious gay little bias.

I just don't know! Despite its strengths this game ends up the most tragically uneven Bayonetta.

343 is a land of contrasts.

The campaign is undoubtedly the most fun and solid one that 343 has managed to put out, but while it lacks many low points it also trails behind in high points. The campaign remains pretty consistently Alright the entire way through with very few moments that actively thrill or excite.

The core combat is the best Halo has been in a long time, which extends to the multiplayer, a fantastic core game which is unfortunately deeply marred by the Games as a Service model that stinks up the whole thing. This is the best Halo has been in a long time, but the entire time you can't help but wonder what it would be like to play this game without its many compromises.

It's so ambitious and full of vision and obviously a technical marvel for getting all this on the Goldsrc engine, and I loved this so much back in the day, but man. A lot of this really doesn't hold up, especially the designers tendency to just spam tons of enemies at you in all scenarios.

The co-op campaign in particular, is hilariously against the tone of the whole thing to the point where it wraps around to being absurd. All the weaknesses of the main game exacerbated into a linear series of combat challenge maps with questionable ammo drops (the scenario of which gets only more ridiculous as you will find plenty of "Donator Only" TMPs placed throughout the campaign).

I played it with a friend in what I thought was a private server but then a random stranger named <rotate=180>amogus joined through bizarre means, who clearly had played the campaign many many times and was just waiting for someone to start it up again, and all of a sudden the vintage Goldsrc experience of playing with a mysterious stranger re-emerged for us, and while those 2 hours weren't necessarily good, it felt like revisiting an old hometown. God bless you, <rotate=180>amogus.