Decided to update my reviews for my VHM playthroughs in Chronological order for the story. [A save editor was used to play as a new character; Vault Hunter mode being locked to the same character is such a lame restriction.]

Playthrough 1: Brick [Rating: 3.5/5 stars]
VHM / Playthrough 2: Roland
While I'm keeping my original score of a 3.5 for the first playthrough, I have to say I enjoyed this playthrough a lot more!
The huge open areas which hampered my enjoyment a lot in the first playthrough felt a lot more doable since we knew to let the sidequests stack up in these areas before getting them all done in one sweep.
I really enjoyed the aspect of building my Skill Tree, which is much more relevant in this second playthrough than the first (half the upgrades in the first playthrough were just "More HP/Shield/Ammo", and now I was really able to mess around with the more gimmicky upgrades; Healing my teammate by shooting them being a particular stand-out).

Some of the flaws were not really alleviated though unfortunately:
- Audio logs and dialogue still bugged out which was frustrating.
- Music is largely bland (Skag Gully slaps though)
- Weapon progression doesn't feel that great without farming [which we largely avoid for the sake of our own sanity]

Some issues unique to the second playthrough:
- Enemy scaling in the midgame was kinda nuts, we had to go back and do a ton of sidequests for xp just to stand a chance. [potentially due to us starting the second playthrough at level 35, but unsure.]
- Weapon balance revealed itself to be even worse than previously thought. Eridian weapons are a joke, SMG's feel largely outclassed by either pistols and/or machine guns, Rocket Launchers felt wholly underwhelming and Snipers became relegated to cheesing enemies in the mid- to endgame [Revolvers just felt superior in every way].
- Crawmerax fucking BLOWS. Who balanced this fight?! You make us grind all the way to level 69, just to still get one-shot if you don't have ultra-specific gear?! The fact that the most popular strat to beat him is to glitch him out is honestly laughable.
- FUCK THE KNOXX'S ARMORY DLC ALL MY HOMIES HATE THE KNOXX'S ARMORY DLC!

Conclusion: The gameplay loop felt a lot more satisfying this time around. There's a charm to BL1's simplicity, and I still really like how using a weapon type a lot boosts their effectiveness. This playthrough also made me fall in love with revolvers, which I largely skipped the first time around. Support Roland was also just a generally fun playstyle, though I did feel like I lacked damage in the early- and midgame, before I started really investing in my turret. Ending still blows, and the VHM-variant of The Destroyer is just a blob of HP so that was really underwhelming (again...).

But yeah, generally I think this was an 8/10 experience this time around. Onto the Pre-Sequel!

[Part 1 Review:]
There's a surprising amount of jank for such a short puzzle game, which lead to a lot of aimless wandering trying to figure out what the next piece of the puzzle was, especially due to the game not registering me picking up items (I walked over that tree branch 10 different times before suddenly it registered as an item).

However, the game has fantastic presentation. The game has a great eerie artstyle, the deaths are surprisingly brutal, and the soundtrack is subtle but adds to the overall ominous feeling. A great little flash game, and makes me wish it had an extended, polished release on steam.

Up next in the chronological playthrough: The Pre-Sequel! Upon beating it on Vault Hunter Mode, I honestly think I like it even more, though not enough to get the 4.5 stars as some flaws were much more evident.

Playthrough 1: Aurelia Hammerlock [4/5 stars]
VHM / Playthrough 2: Nisha [4.25/5 stars]

The Improvements:
- I'm very glad I went with Nisha as my character this time around, as her ability combined with the dual pistols skill is incredibly fun (and broken) to play with. Though I love Aurelia's character and gameplay, clearing out entire rooms in one burst of my ability was an incredible feeling.
- The weapon progression was fantastic this playthrough! Perhaps it is in part that I'm getting better at assessing what is an upgrade over my current gear, but it felt like every other mission I was finding some kind of significant upgrade over my current loadout.
- My appreciation and love for the characters in this one increased as well. Many great bits to be found in the side-quests, The story is still the best one told in the franchise and i'll take Nina over Zed any day.
- Claptastic Voyage still slaps.
- You've got a great lookin' mainframe... I love the look of your mainframe...

The Not-So-Good:
- The first hour or three were a bit boring this time around; potentially due to our characters starting at too high a level.
- The end-game difficulty curve is a bit insane, especially the ascended's are tedious to deal with at times as they constantly become stronger while recovering all their health.
- The gimmick of Nisha's unending cruelty becomes a bit tedious to listen to after a while.
- Some characters, as much as I hate to admit it, went down the powerrankings a bit. I completely missed Janey Springs' obsession with Moxxi the first time around so hearing about it constantly this time was incredibly jarring.
- Still heavily dislike laser-guns. I think we found maybe one that was functional? But even then it was only because it was so comically broken that being a laser-gun did not hinder it. (+300% continuous damage is a wild stat to put on a rapidly firing weapon)

---- All in all I enjoyed it just a bit more than the first playthrough, but that honestly might primarily be my choice of character. I love Aurelia, but I adore Nisha('s gameplay). I know it's a controversial take but [for now atleast] I still think this is my favourite one. The gameplay is largely the same across all these games so I tend to gravitate towards analysing the characters and narrative more when looking for what I like about these games.

Anyways, Borderlands 2 is up next! This was my least favourite one when originally playing through them (mainly because of the length and the fact I wasn't that into the franchise yet), but I'm hopeful I can appreciate it a lot more this time!

Thinks it's a lot smarter than it is, or atleast the fans seem to do.

The writing is really heavy-handed with the metaphors, and it's constantly bashing you over the head with the meaning of them too because god forbid you have to cricitically think about it for a second. I also just heavily dislike this type of meta writing in general because it always comes of super pretentious and this is not an exception.

The atmosphere is great though, and I enjoy the vibes it gives off + the monster designs are fun (Thanks E.T. for letting me buy milk).

For a dollar I don't exactly feel ripped off, though this does feel like a game that should be free-to-play for how little content it offers. Maybe the sequel can improve the writing, because I do like the "world" that's being created here, but the writer seems more concerned with making sure that everyone knows whats going on at all times while feigning mystery, which just isn't an enticing read.

Genuinely the best storytelling of all the Borderlands games and a great cast rivalling that of Borderlands The Pre-Sequal.

In a lot of ways this game is the opposite of the other Borderlands games. While the gameplay is nothing to write home about and I don't feel my choices mattered all that much, save for the final fight, the story, visuals, humor and characters make this game shine for me and kept me very much engaged (whereas with the mainline entries, sometimes the gameplay was all that kept me slogging through those stories).

I feel I should make a special note about the humor in this game. Borderlands is (in)famous for its crude and repetitive humor, and this game does away with it completely. Most of the jokes land and I found myself laughing out loud on several different occassions (especially in chapter 1 & 3).

There's so also so many little touches that make this game more fun. A lot of references from all over the series are put into this game, without taking up much space in the actual story, which are just a fun and welcome addition.
I think that's the best way to describe this game; its just so fun. Hell, this game has a little interaction between Gortys and Loaderbot which you can accidentally stumble upon where Gortys questions why a mystery person's design has a tie going from his neck into his pants, which made me look closer at Rhys' design for the first time and yup it really does have a tie going into his pants. That's such a cute and funny little touch while remaining totally in line with his character.

Honestly, this belongs up there with TellTales' best games (Walking Dead S1 & 2, The Wolf Among Us), I wish I could give this more than 4 stars but the (lack of) gameplay really does start to hinder the game after a while.

Well damn. Now I want a Borderlands game with the gameplay from 3 and the storytelling from Tales. We might actually get the masterpiece people claim Borderlands 2 is.

Here we are in 2022 and it's still a great game despite shit support from Valve and all the bots running around.

So much charm and personality is put into the different characters, taunts, weapons and maps, that it's hard not to love them. Besides, the game is strangely well balanced with most 'unbalanced' weapons usually landing in the 'worse-than-stock' part of game balance rather than the 'overpowered' part, which is quite pleasant and surprising for a game which hasn't seen a major update for about 6 years.

The community is... I don't know what to say about the community. On the one hand many of the people who still play TF2 are fantastic, fun and casual enjoyers who really enhance the (casual) experience. On the other hand, this game has some of the most immature, blatantly racist and weird people I've ever met. There really doesn't seem to be an inbetween with TF2 players.

At the end of the day, the fact that this game still has such an active community speaks for itself. This game is pretty good.

This game has the worst first impression with that horrible lizard boss, but from the second boss on its short and pretty enjoyable.

Swinging into bosses with the grapple to crit them with your sword for a good chunk of their health is strangely satisfying.
You can beat it in an hour, and I had my fun with it. Won't ever come back to it but as a free game it's just a silly little adventure.

Also someone check on the guy reading Moby Dick, he seemed to be struggling quite a bit.

Unravel Two is a fantastic co-op experience, but I'm not going to argue it is some kind of misunderstood masterpiece.

The story is almost incomprehensible, and the gameplay rather repetitive, but when your primary mechanic is so satisfying to use it almost doesn't matter.
The little flips and animations the characters do are so charming and fun, it was hard for me to get bored of them despite the rather repetitious puzzles and level design.

This game is awesome and relaxing at the same time, and it's the perfect length to boot. I kinda love it. Even if it isn't all that impressive technically, it nails the fundamentals so well that any criticisms I do have feel incredibly minor.

Seemed like my kind of game but the gimmicks are way too surface level and often end up boring rather than zany or fun.

The best levels are locked challenge versions of old ones, which is a shame and I would have much preferred these challenge versions to be the actual levels and the crown maps to be standalone levels.

The gimmicks also are surprisingly unimaginative for a game that's completely build it around it; especially early on a lot of the levels are "Hit unexpected thing instead of the ball!"

Admittedly I did smile when it flashed the words BALLS. in front of me in full caps at one point, sue me.

Compared to the other 3D Mario platformers, It's not very complex or innovating. But the game does a great job at introducing new elements and ideas with every level, while never becoming overwhelming.

My main issue with some of the other 3D Mario's is that in their quest for unique and zany platforming they often create levels and worlds that end up more frustrating than fun. Mario 3D Land, in contrast, has quite safe level design. It never reaches the highs of 64 and Galaxy, but it never reaches their lows either. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing.

Furthermore, while the lack of an interesting post-game is unfortunate, I still appreciate the main game very much for what it is: A relaxing, pleasant and charming Mario platformer.

Adorable little game. You can beat it in just 3 hours at the time of making this review, but I'm sure more worlds will follow.

As someone who doesn't like roguelites all that much I'm really liking this auto-battler/roguelite hybrid-genre Vampire Survivors has spawned.

Some small gripes: Even on 'Wicked' difficulty the game still feels a bit too easy most of the time, and sometimes when nearing a corner it can definitely feel like you are fighting with the controls when your characters start spinning in all kinds of directions.

But the game (as of writing this review) is still in BETA, so i'm very excited to see where it goes!

Having now played for about 3 hours it is pretty evident Bounty of One is not as well made, balanced or in-depth as many of the other games spawned by Vampire Survivors, but being the first (as far as I'm aware) that has co-op is a novel concept which carries it quite far.

The game is quite easy currently, but this might change as we go up the difficulty curve. My main enjoyment currently comes from trying various insane builds on the different assortment of characters, but i'm a bit worried if the difficulty does not pick up soon I will lose interest rather quickly.

Also for the love of God let the other players read what the upgrades do without having to wait for player 1 to scroll over it. And while we're at it, a deselect option in co-op is desperately needed.