One of the surprise releases of 2023, this was the first time I played the first Metroid Prime, and I'm happy to say that it's one of my favorite gaming experiences I had this year!

The sense of being alone on this planet figuring out what exactly is going on was fun from beginning to end. It's also one of the prettiest games out there on the Switch, and runs super smooth! The music and ambience fits perfectly for the colorful areas that you traverse on this lonely planet.

The isolated feeling you get from this game might make it, for me, one of the most immersive games I have ever played. So many little details can be seen if you take the time to look, and makes everything feel so real. And it doesn't feel like you're going through menus, since its all integrated on Samus' visor in some way.

It is very difficult as well. If you are not prepared for what is coming, you will get your ass kicked in one way or another. But it's very rewarding to figure out patterns and how to kill the bosses here. If i had any kind of complaint it would be the backtracking, it could be a little cumbersome if you didn't pay enough attention to certain clues that the game lays out for you, but that is only a small gripe to have.

This a game that I'll remember and I will come back to this from time to time.

After finishing RE2, I can say that RE3 is a bit lackluster. Not bad at all but it's not up to par. Let's get into it:

First of all, I realized some sort of a trend in Resident Evil games. Their first levels are great, then the rest of the game never reaches that quality. I felt the same thing in this one as well. I guess that's the strategy Capcom is deliberately going for RE games.

Anyway, the thing with RE3 is that it is fast paced. Levels are smaller, ammunition is plentiful and our character Jill is more agile than Leon. She can roll away from attacks now and runs a bit faster. For some reason I felt than way.

This design choice is a bit of a mixed bag. At one point, as an action fan, I like it. Especially pulling those perfect rolls are satisfying. However, the levels are uninspiring because of this design choice. Even if you try to discover stuff instead of blitzing through, it doesn't feel as satisfying as in RE2. Best part of the game was the initial area where you roam around the chaotic and ruined streets of Raccoon City but it took me less than an hour to finish it. And that was me trying to discover every corner of the city.

Another elephant in the room is your arch enemy, aka Nemesis. He relentlessly chases you throughout the game and you get to have a boss fight against him 4 times. He simply does not stop. I like his agility and long range attacks. Since you have a roll ability now, it is fair that Capcom gave him some moves. However, for some reason, I don't think he feels as menacing as Mr.X. You stop shitting your pants after some time when you see Nemesis unlike Mr.X. You know that you're gonna kick his ass again for sure.

Anyway, this game is simply the faster version of RE2. You go in and blast the fuck through everything. It is a solid experience but a step back compared to its predecessor.

Confession time, this is the only Tomb Raider game I've put any significant time in. With that in mind, I liked this game. Its inspiration from Uncharted does make it feel like a snake eating its own tail, but I think it does differentiate itself.

Its combat is actually better than the OG Uncharted trilogy, and some of its levels are a bit denser and less linear. The downside to that is I found them a bit difficult to orient myself in. The plot leans more into the struggle of being lost on an island, being hunted and in danger, than the more knockabout silliness of Uncharted. I think it works well despite people parodying or criticising the suffering. I don't think it's as bad as they say.

The downside is that it removes some of the uniqueness and puzzle solving of the older games, to my understanding. This is very much an action adventure first, with over the top stunts to boot. It's also just not as memorable as other games. In making Lara relatable, they made her less memorable.

On the whole, I like this game quite a bit, but it doesn't have that X factor that makes those other games last. It doesn't surprise me that sequels to this game struggled to grab people's attention in the same way, despite it being a quality game overall.

The most 2011 game of all time. A dark, gritty zombie game packed to the brim with dated immersive mechanics to give a sense of “realism.”

The controls are clunky; you get used to them but it’s like saying you mastered walking in shoes 5 sizes too big. You’re constantly bodyblocked by teammates and are forced to fight tons of enemies in close-quarter hallways. Forced aim-assist makes gunplay near impossible, along with no steady source to find bullets until 2/3rds the way through finishing. The neatest thing to the controls was a dodge jump that isn’t really told to you, it’s super useful for dealing with all the special zombies and different than every other game from the era giving you a little bitch push move just for a little wiggle room.

My biggest issue with this game has always been the RPG-elements, specifically with the weapons. Any time I tried to optimize my loadout, I would get frustrated from investing all my money and resources into my cool baseball bat, only to find the shop just rotated and there’s a new baseball bat that’s way stronger and sinking my money into that, but then 10 minutes of walking outside I found a new baseball bat even stronger. I had to basically put on a blindfold any time I looked at my weapons and throw all my money into a fire pit just to hope I do enough damage to the next zombie I encounter. I’ve always been told “just ignore it” and if that’s really the best response for a game about getting weapons to kill zombies with, then I think there’s a problem. 99% of quests are “go here, grab this, but zombies are in the way” and if finding the way to most optimally kill zombies should be “ignored” then what do you even have left? A mediocre looter-shooter? After a while, our group did missions by running past the zombies and I just thought to myself what’s the point of doing them if the reward is just more resources to kill the zombies that we are skipping? I didn’t complain out loud though, it got the game over with quicker 😎

I feel like most people have fond memories of this game because they could kick the shit out of a zombie with friends; it’s really this games biggest blessing because playing alone will just bore the hell out of you since your only friend is the baseball bat that you’re gonna replace in the next 10 minutes.

Being a Miyazaki's Souls game already make it better than 90% of games out there, i want to make that clear, but i got some problems with it:

I think the open world adds nothing good to the souls formula, sure, we finally have a open world game with top-tier level design castles and dungeons, but souls-games already had that. On the other hand i think that being open world actually hurts some aspect of the souls experience, like NPC Quests, which were already weird and messy on normal souls, but now it's just impossible to keep track or discover it by yourself. Another thing hurt in my opinion is NG+ (a big part of souls-games)
NG+ and FromSoftware style of NPC Quests are not designed for a 150h game, it's way too much. Being totally honest after a reaching like 90~100 hours of gameplay i stop caring about the game and just wanted to rush everything to end it, i was tired/bored of the game. That have never happen to me on any other Miyazaki's game.

Another thing that puzzle me is what the heck was George Martin doing in this game? Cause the story is the same thing Miyazaki is being doing for 14 years... The lore is almost the same if we change Great Runes by Lord Souls.

Also some open world areas like Montaintops, Nokron or Deeproot runs like sht on PS4, literally a power point presentation, the worst performance i have seen on PS4 so far, it's like Dark Souls Blighttown on PS3 again.

The good of the game?
The main legacy location (Stormveil, Raya Lucaria, The Capital, etc) are excellent, on the top of FromSoftware level. I think a shorter game with just those would have being better.
Bosses are ok, but there's a lot of repetition, tho. They got to fill those open world areas with something.
Lot of magics if that's your play style.
Last boss looks cool, but is a horrible fight, it's a "run and try to catch me" game more than a fight.

So, what i'm saying is: It's a good game, but compared to all previous FromSoftware Souls-game i have played (DS1, BB, Sekiro & DS3) it's my least favorite. This is Dark Souls 3 but stretched and diluted on a open world map.

Coming late to a franchise as old as Zelda is a funny thing. See, I got this game the day it came out. Back then, I was fairly new to the series, so I didn't know about the template Zelda games had been following for years. As such, I completely understand why there are such a diversity of opinions on Skyward Sword. Much like Twilight Princess, those who played this as one of their first Zelda games tend to love it. Series veterans, on the other hand, often bemoan the lack of new ideas.

While I like Skyward Sword, the veterans are not wrong in their assessment. The "new" elements of Skyward Sword are refinements of ideas from past Zeldas. The silent realms were just better Twilight sections, flying was another mode of transportation like Wind Waker's sailing, and the story hit similar beats to previous games. What's worse is that Skyward Sword failed with ideas that past entries got right. The Sky competes with Ocarina of Time's Hyrule Field for the most barren overworld in the series; the motion-based combat, while fun to me, is seen as shallow by some because directional swinging is all you do (something I cannot disagree with); Fi was a downgrade from Midna in every way for reasons everyone knows; and the game felt the need to tell you about items CONSTANTLY. I KNOW WHAT AN AMBER RELIC IS!!!

The flaws of Skyward Sword on Wii are so prevalent that I do not blame anyone for dismissing the game entirely, even with the QoL features in the HD version. Some issues, like the game's linearity, cannot be "fixed" without changing the core experience. Regardless, I still value several of its features. The aforementioned silent realms are thrilling, several of the characters are amazing, the orchestral soundtrack is good, and several of the dungeons are among the most imaginative in Zelda history.

The dungeons are actually the key to why I enjoy Skyward Sword so much. They have always been my favorite part of Zelda and were designed extremely well in Skyward Sword, but Nintendo also did something fairly unique by designing the three surface worlds like dungeons. They incorporated loads of environmental puzzles requiring a decent level of critical thinking. These types of puzzles are not new to Zelda, but previous games rarely had you solve them in areas outside of dungeons. I believe this was a great idea, as the content between dungeons in other Zelda games often came across as filler (catch a fish, talk to these NPCs, obtain these random items, etc). There was still some of that in Skyward Sword, especially later on, but for the most part, the game gave you a puzzle to solve and incrementally rewarded you with more interesting puzzles and story progress. The game kept my attention the whole way through and I would personally like to see more handcrafted challenges like these in future Zelda games.

The last thing I will address is the game's linearity. I'm not opposed to linear games. In fact, I usually prefer them over open-ended games because they often have a harder time crafting unique challenges for the player. However, Zelda was created to be about exploration and this entry did not have that, even though the Sky would have been a perfect place for it. One could argue that its linearity created a more focused adventure, but one need only look at previous 3D Zeldas to see how Skyward Sword didn't need to sacrifice its exploration. With the exception of Breath of the Wild, all of the 3D Zeldas are linear. Despite this, they felt expansive and packed a respectable amount of optional content in their worlds. Skyward Sword did have optional Skyloft quests and collectibles, but the world felt small, and that is unfortunate.

Skyward Sword is not a bad game. It's worth a playthrough if you prefer Zelda to be all about dungeons, puzzles, and epic storytelling. It satisfied me, but it won't satisfy everyone. I'm okay with that though. The series experienced an important shift in its design philosophy going forward and it wouldn't have happened if Skyward Sword wasn't so flawed. If nothing else, it is part of the series' legacy and should be remembered, warts and all.

You already know what it is. I enjoyed this game but it also kind of made me realise Rockstar games aren't really for me. The most enjoyable element of them is driving around and exploring the world. Rockstar make incredible worlds that are fun to just exist in, to drive around and do what you like.

The downside to this game is that a lot of the things you do, outside of your own whims, aren't much fun. Mini games and story missions just never grabbed me. I had no interest in the online element either. Not a bad game, but it doesn't click with me.

A beautifully animated game, easily my favourite Zelda to look. I love the deep blues, reds and greens, the cute animated Link and characters, the fun, bouncy and rousing music. I love sailing the seas, even if it can become repetitive. The controls still feel great too, a vast improvement on the N64 Zelda games.

Parts of this game do feel a bit unfinished, and it does simplify the gameplay at times. It's very satisfying to play, and it's understandable as they are aiming at a younger audience, but it does mean that I have less memorable gameplay moments. What makes this game most enjoyable is its setting and art, the joy of exploration and the fun of it all.

I was relatively late to this, playing it in 2020 after finishing Bloodborne and Sekiro previously. Previously I'd been put off by what I thought was a fairly slow and drab world. I knew people raved about the game but wasn't sure if other From Software games had surpassed it.

Thankfully I found myself fall in love with this game. It's probably the least consistent From game I've played. Some areas and bosses are pretty painful and tedious. What sets it apart is the incredible world and level design. Everything connects together so beautifully, particularly before you get fast travel. You're always aware of where you are in relation to the world, in relation to safety, the different places and characters you meet.

It's hard to explain, but the story, the levels, everything just clicks into place. It's got some low points, it's a little rough in parts, but its still an unforgettable experience, well worth getting over some of the humps to experience.