After nearly a decade, I decided to revisit Fallout 3 after watching the show, and discovered that the game holds up quite well, with excellent side quests and interesting lore and locations that make up for lackluster combat and some jank (Disclaimer: I did use a light set of mods for QoL / some extra quests).

Just like its sequels, Fallout 3 excels in creating a fantastic gameplay loop - exploring, going to new locations to complete quests, killing everything, and moving on to the next spot. In my opinion, the main quest has a good story, with solid voice acting and good twists (Tranquility Lane and Raven Rock as highlights). The side quests are where the game really shines, with interesting twists, a good spread of moral (or immoral) decisions, and great variety. Although I play as a "good guy," I appreciate the effort to make sure you can be very bad instead. The dialogue is full of opportunities to apply skills to resolve situations, and I like the old-school skill system, though more narrow then perks in later games. My only complaint with quests would be the poor writing at the end of the main quest, which is largely a non-issue with the Broken Steel DLC.

However, a lot of the gameplay loop was greatly improved by the games sequels. Companions are uninteresting, with no quests and little dialogue, (except for those added by mods) and are a constant liability. Although individual locations are quite fun to explore, there's not much motivation to go out of your way to remote corners of the map (a benefit of the radiant quests introduced by later games). The excellent side quests are incredibly difficult to find at times without an online guide. The subway system, though atmospheric, is frustrating to navigate. Combat is a mixed bag, ranging from quite fun when headshotting enemies in epic VATS killshots, to frustrating with tanky enemies who are hard to hit. Managing inventory weight is often annoying, as with most Bethesda games.

At the end of the day, the game still holds up well. Graphics, though dreary and green, still convey the atmosphere quite well, and the gameplay ends up being very fun if not as refined as some later Bethesda games. Fallout 3 is still very worth playing.

I decided to revisit Dark Souls II for this year's Return to Drangleic event, and having completed another playthrough, I find myself torn on my opinions of it. Some of the content, particularly in the DLCs, stands among the my personal favorite for the souls series. On the other hand, the low points are the lowest in the franchise, and I understand why many people do not like the game.

To first discuss the positives, Dark Souls II has some really good souls content. Although the world isn't as interconnected as the first game, many of the levels have intricate layouts and shortcuts that stand the test of time, even after multiple playthroughs. Since I'm rating SOTFS, I can also include the DLCs - Shulva and Brume Tower are absolutely fantastic levels, with amazing traps, puzzles, and secrets. The bosses, though not as good as the more recent games, are on par with Dark Souls I in my opinion. NPC quests are well-done in this game, and the lore is quite interesting, told in the series typical manner. Some experimental features, such as powerstancing and the more open nature of the early game, were executed very well.

One of my favorite aspects of the game is the online play, which had good activity over the past month. The Rat covenant is my all-time favorite, which has not been matched in any of the other entries, since I love having other players run the gauntlet of traps in my world. Bellkeepers PVP was also quite fun, and co-op on difficult bosses was a blast as usual for the series.

On the other hand, Dark Souls II tested new ground on a lot of aspects that fell flat. Soul Memory is a huge misstep and makes finding co-op and pvp substantially more difficult. Adaptability as a stat was an annoying choice, but not very noticeable past the early game.

The biggest sin for Dark Souls II, for me, is the mismatch between level difficulty and boss difficulty - boss runbacks are full of enemy "ganks" with unfair and cruel placements, and that dampens the fun of fighting against the actual boss of a level. Often, I'd die more times running back to a boss than to the boss itself. However, I'd forget my frustration when enjoying pvp or going through one of the more fair levels. SOTFS has made this worse in certain early game areas, such as Heide's Tower of Flame, compared to the original game.

Overall, I still love Dark Souls II, and I'll keep coming back every few years for another playthrough. However, the game has serious and very frustrating flaws, and I'm glad it served as a learning experience for future entries in the series.

As my first Armored Core game (but a long-time souls fan), I knew to expect something different from this game than what I was used to. I ended up pleasantly surprised from start to finish. AC6 isn't a very long game, with my first playthrough taking less than 20 hours, but it's a very enjoyable one, and I immediately dove into ng+ as well (and will eventually do ng+2 to see the full story).

The main highlight of the game for me was the fantastic voice acting and characterization. For a game where you never see the face of any characters, the voices carried a lot of weight, and made you care about both your friends (Rusty, Ayre, Carla, Walter) and foes (Snail). With the different story choices at the end of the game, different endings felt very impactful, especially due to how different characters are affected. This game also does an incredible job of making it feel like your progress as a mercenary, and growing reputation, make a difference, with excellent dialogue from enemies and briefings that reflects that.

Combat was very enjoyable, though using both shoulder and trigger buttons constantly took some getting used to. It's a very high-paced, frenetic experience, with epic encounters and setpieces from start to finish. Balteus was the peak of boss design, with some close contenders in the late game. By ng+, I was able to blast through my opponents, feeling like a badass who earned the Raven callsign.

A few missions were annoying, especially those defending inanimate objects. I wish the game had about one more chapter of content, and wish you could S-rank missions on ng+ without having to separately replay them. Those are my small complaints.

Overall, this game makes you feel like an absolute badass, and is worth playing even if not experienced with the genre.