I've seen this game criticized and lumped in with other "walking simulators" and frankly, I don't understand the hate. I picked it up the day it came out, and I had what was practically an out-of-body experience with it. I sat on the couch, my head in the clouds, and practically ripped it all the way through. At one point a friend of mine said "Wow, it's already 6:30?!" To which I responded, "What time was it before?" That line is now one of our favorite in jokes. What the hell did I mean by that? All I can say is, the lack of clarity required to pose such a mysterious question was brought on entirely by Firewatch. The art style clicked with me in such a profound way, and while the mystery may not have paid off in spades, it was a journey I'll never forget.

I'm not sure that there's ever been an open world more enthralling, more immersive, more COMPLETE than what The Witcher 3 provides. The storytelling chops on display, the way the sidequests blow the walls off of the place, I mean hell even Gwent is a good time. I beat everyone in the world at that stupid game! The combat left a little bit to be desired, but for its time this game was really everything that fans of the genre could ask for, and then some. I anxiously await CDProjekt's next foray into this Universe.

People love to rag on this game. I enjoyed it for exactly what it was. I became quickly attuned to the bromantic foursome, and the narrative struck surprisingly deep, particularly around the halfway point. It took me a long time to adjust to ATB systems, as I'm a turn-based Stan at heart. But FFXV does it just right. I get that the shift to an open-world wasn't handled with all the care in the World, but I found it to be a welcome change, and I didn't feel that the game overstayed its welcome in the end.