The fox imagery at the end made me cry.
So far this and Portal 2 are the only videogames that have made me cry, I don't know what that says about me.

Incredibly simple but clever storytelling, though the length of the individual chapters does hinder it. The ending is honestly fantastic and goes so well with the slightly eerie feeling of being watched that permeates through the entire first half of the game.
If this was 1-2 hours shorter it would've honestly been a 5 star game, but as it stands the length holds it back ever so slightly.

The first few worlds are amazing and really kick this game off to a fantastic start. If the game was just the first few levels and the last few levels this would indeed be the 5/5 stars game people hype it up to be.

Unfortunately the middle chunk of the levels has a lot of stinkers and quite a few stars are incredibly vague in their description.

Lots of good ideas and fun levels and I can see why the speedrunning community adores it but as a casual game it has it flaws. Overall a great starting off point for 3D mario I wonder where they'll go next!

Oh. Oh no.

Ratchet & Clank at its most formulaic so far.
The game does nothing to set itself apart from its predecessors, nor does it have the charm or storytelling to stand out either. The villain Emperor Tachyon is basically just as lame as Emperor Otto Destruct but more annoying.
The weapon selection is mostly boring as well, with only the tornado gun really standing out.
I don't know, it's fine? There are far worse things to play out there obviously, but I suppose I just expected more from one of my favourite franchises.

I think this game has the best borderlands cast to date, which really make or break these games for me. A lot of them are just so charming, unlike the main cast from BL2, in which the only characters with personalities were annoying. (I think I'm just a sucker for the Australian accents to be honest...)

The biggest flaws are its settings and weapons:
- the moon becomes pretty monotonous after a while and they really only attempt to change up the scenery towards the end of the game.
- Oxygen mechanic feels redudant.
- I don't think the plasma gun hitboxes work as intended, they never seem to hit the target even when right in front of them.
- Game can still suffer from classic borderlands writing here and there; though it is much improved from Borderlands 2.

The fact that the game is much simpler and shorter compared to the previous titles allows the game to pace much better and not feel like it's starting to drag halfway through. It removes a lot of frustrating elements from particularly borderlands 2's late game as well (f.e. constantly dying and reviving because enemies start one-shotting you).

The side-quests felt much improved. Only a few side-quests felt tedious or frustrating when compared to Borderlands 2, with some added variation here and there with races, photography and sports. (though I really wish these were fleshed out and/or appeared more.) And often when you got a lot at once they were shorter and you could blow through them in one go.

Story is pretty decent, though it especially puts lilith and roland in a bad light. They really are self-righteous hypocrites.

To conclude, it's short (for a Borderlands game) and sweet. As someone who enjoys the gameplay and story but is not a hardcore fan this is honestly the most enjoyment I've gotten out of a borderlands game so far.

I feel like the first two levels have tricked people into thinking the rest of the game is just as good, but it really is not even close.

There are like 3 forms of missions all of which are some form of "drive from point A to B" which is fine at first, but the repitition soon becomes tedious. However, the real kicker is the low timers they start adding which force you to be almost perfect in your driving while NPC's crash into you unexpectedly because you cannot look through walls or sense them coming, causing you to have to open the menu and restart the mission immediately.

The last level is almost fun until the last mission in the game which is genuinly created by Satan himself to drain every last bit of soul left from your body and all you can do is watch the screen flash "Game Over: Timer Ran Out" and "Game Over: Car Exploded" over and over and over again.

The game is a frustrating mess with some genuinly good ideas. Any time I was not in a car I was having a pretty decent time collecting trading cards, buying clothing, killing robotic wasps and what not, and the first two levels are honestly really fun! Unfortunately, the game falls apart quickly the moment it asks you to actually play the main quests.

Had this at a 3.5 at first, but after playing some of the later chapters for each character I had to lower this to a 3 star.

Runs become unbelievably RNG-heavy to the point where some runs die in the first 2 levels because of quality difference in die rolls, and later floors often turn into a rage-inducing slog as you watch the enemy roll multiples freezes, blinds, shocks, poison, curses and what not multiple times in a row with one fight with bad RNG potentially, if not probably, dooming the entire run.

The game wants you to build for every encounter but then almost never actually gives you the tools to do so. There are some good idea's here and there is fun to be had in the earlier levels, but a game in which you lose an entire run because of 1 fight with bad RNG just kills my drive to play it after a while.

First off: Borderlands has always had crass and insensitive 'jokes', but calling tribal enemies "savages" is downright insulting and disrespectful towards the mocking and suffering indigenous tribes have faced.

Regarding the actual DLC content: It's pretty decent. The first area feels taken right out of Dr. Zed's Zombie Island, but everything else has a distinct feel to it and the new enemy types are welcome additions.

It does not overstay it's welcome, but it does suffer from issues other DLC's have (abrupt ending, lack of interesting new ideas, some bad sidequests). However, it's a pretty enjoyable 3-4 hours.

Oxenfree is an incredibly mixed bag.

The game starts and immediately almost the entire cast is unlikeable. The way they speak is so inhuman in an attempt to create witty banter, but it just comes across as unnatural and forced.

Then the portal in the cave opens and the game becomes really good for a couple hours. Characters stop being robots and are allowed to be humans for a change (Especially Jonas and Alex improve here). Good mystery too and an effectively eerie atmosphere is created.

Then the last few hours of the plot kick in and the more you learn the less interesting and convoluted it becomes. It is at this point that you really start to feel the lack of gameplay (especially as you are made to walk further and further to continue each chapter).

Not to the mention that sometimes dialogue options will fade away before characters have finished speaking meaning you'll have to guess what direction the conversation is going in and/or miss out on information. This can also lead to choosing options which make your character say things you didn't want them to say out of lack of time to properly read the dialogue options.

The ending also confused me when it told me how I made up with Clarissa when I couldn't tell you what I did to warrant this ending; though this is but a minor nitpick compared the previously stated concerns.

In conclusion: Oxenfree has a few glaring issues preventing it from being a great game: The (lack of) gameplay, the characters having unnatural conversations and the story becoming more convoluted and uninteresting the longer it went on. The middle chunk of this game is fantastic, but it does not carry that momentum with it until the end.

What Remains of Edith Finch is a wonderfully told narrative about generational trauma, loss and grief.

The house itself is a wonderful metaphor for the pain the Finch family was in; it's broken state with the closed off rooms representing Dawn's unwillingness to face her past and the disarray the family was in, while Edie and Edith use secret passageways to remember and learn the family members' stories respectively.

The game, despite consisting of mostly walking and listening, has a surprising amount of little gameplay sections and differing art styles which really help set each family members narrative apart.

I think in a lot of ways this is a 'perfect' game, or as perfect as this genre can get. However, I can't quite give it 5 stars as the game didn't quite hit me the same way emotionally as for example it's contemporary RiME did. Nor does the ending really surprise of leave particular impact (though perhaps all it needed to do was tie a neat bow in the story).

In conclusion: What Remains of Edith Finch is a beautiful small story about a family and their tragedies, and this game is, and rightfully should be, a hallmark of the genre for a reason.