I had virtually no interest in cars before playing this, but I wanted something with good graphics for my shiny new PS5 and heard the haptic feedback in this game was incredible. That all ended up being true, but GT7's hardcore (to me) adherence to realistic physics and tuning is primarily responsible for me getting into cars (guess who knows how to change their brake pads and oil now...). It took me about a year of playing a couple races every week or two to "beat" the single player mode. I think treating this very casually was the way to go. Binging it would have been tedious.

That being said, the constant nudging towards spending real money on this game feels terribly out of place. Requiring this game to be always-online in the first place is ridiculous. Too bad modern AAA trends have infected their way into this.

I hear the original score for the older games goes hard. I ended up turning the music off entirely. At least the PS5 has Spotify support.

Melee is the greatest competitive video game ever made, and it was by mistake. This game is so good, if casuals did not know the competitive scene existed, they would never complain about it. Melee gets hate for being popular and liked, which I've never understood.

If you break it down at a game level, it x2's everything smash 64 had to offer. Larger Cast, Stage list, Item list, Single Player and Multiplayer offerings... trophies even. The list just goes on and on for improvements made between 64 and Melee.

Melee is so fascinating to me because its hard for me to find individual flaws in a game so deep. Sure you can complain about balance... which maybe affects 1% of people who've actually touched melee since release.

People point to Brawl being the best casual Smash game and I do have to agree, but Brawl only got there because it was able to build off melee, same way Melee built off of 64. Brawls subspace, does not exist without the success of Melee's adventure mode.

Melee now has some of the best online play any fighting game currently has. The rollback netcode from Slippi truly elevates melee even further into the GOAT status.

In my opinion, Melee is the GOAT of fighting games, and perhaps even games in general.

It's called "Rare" Replay because of all the rare achievements you'll get for merely starting each game once. Who bought this collection, yet still couldn't be bothered to sample the entire catalogue? Some people, I swear.

I had to break in my new Xbox Series X with a no-brainer: A collection that released on for the previous Xbox system, comprised of games that released anywhere between 1-4 decades ago. A handful of these are games that I've been meaning to play for years now, along with others where I feel like I might as well try them, since they all come bundled together. "Thirty games" is a bit misleading, seeing as the earlier third or so could be classified as, well, I think the British term for it is "rubbish." I appreciate that these titles have been preserved here, but most of them aren't fun for very long. They try to redeem that with "Snapshots", simple challenges with their own leaderboards. They're a fun distraction that can't distract me from the older games' archaic nature, I'm afraid.

The rest of the catalogue is so damn meaty that I have less reason to complain. Completing objectives in each game gradually provides you with a wealth of bonus content, including interviews, promotional materials, and even looks at cancelled projects. It's a really nice gesture for people who are interested in this company's history and lasting legacy.

The obvious complaint with this collection probably the lack of anything Donkey Kong. We don't ask who Rare was working for from 1994 to 2002 around here. It's a bit funny (and sad) to see their original N64 offerings with Xbox buttons injected into their graphics, along with removing any mention of Nintendo in general. Kinda surprised that they didn't include both versions of Conker, even if most purists would probably pick the N64 version any day. Some people have preferences, and others will probably cry "preservation." What's also bittersweet is how their history abruptly ends at Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. No comment on that game's quality (I'll give it a fair shake sometime soon), but it's definitely a downer to end their legacy on. No mention that they were enslaved into making Kinect games and Xbox Avatars after the fact, either. Maybe that one's for the best though.