A fantastic end to the current Witcher saga and wraps up Geralt's story very nicely. Blood and Wine adds in a new playable area which is absolutely the best looking area in the game. The contracts and side quests are loads of fun and Geralt even gets his own house which you can customize and make your own. The story is dark and full of conflict and I loved a lot of the characters. Decisions you make are conflicted, there may not be a right answer, and that's extremely realistic and engaging to me. Overall, a great expansion to an already amazing game.

What I love about CDPR's approach to modern day DLC is they are much more akin to older PC games "expansion packs" and that's exactly what Hearts of Stone is advertised as and it hits the mark insanely well. There's about 10 hours of brand new content to be found fleshing out Geralt and his relationship with other characters. I found the story of Olgierd to be tragic and beautifully told, this is among one of the best stories to be told in the game. Much of the quests are similar to what you can find in the base game, however a few standouts are "Dead Man's Party" where Geralt gets possessed by a drunkard ghost out to woo women and party all night, or the beautifully told "Scenes From a Marriage" which depicts Olgierd's marriage crumble and his downfall. Hearts of Stone is a great addition to The Witcher 3 and offers more of what I loved from the game.

I've been playing this game on and off all year and what better time to finally finish it than the week before Christmas, seeing as it takes place on Christmas Eve and can be classified as a Christmas game! Arkham Origins may be the forgotten prequel of the series but it is nothing to ignore, it's a great game and did what it could with the budget and team it was given. While Rocksteady was working on Arkham Knight, a smaller team was given Origins, a prequel to Asylum giving us a less popular and experienced Batman facing off against his soon to be super villains (mainly Bane and The Joker). The story is a bit slow in the beginning and is what was putting me off this game for so long, but once the Joker shows up, the game really gets familiar and gives you that feeling that was missing in the opening hours. It is important to note that the voice cast in this game is not the returning cast from the other games in the series, this time VA vets Roger Craig Smith and Troy Baker fill in for the legendary Kevin Conroy (RIP) and Mark Hamill as Batman and Joker. And I have to say they do a pretty remarkable job, you can tell it isn't exactly the same but they do a good job of giving you that voice you'd expect from these two characters and I wouldn't hate to see them return in a future role seeing as Conroy and Hamill will unfortunately not be returning to the roles again. Gameplay is exactly what you'd expect from an Arkham game and is very fun and engaging. Visually it's nice, but I have to say it feels a bit dull compared to Asylum and City, almost as if it wanted to be super realistic like Knight, but the tech just wasn't quite there, lacking color and tone. The atmosphere is still here, though, and the Christmas theme really helps this game stand out. The parts toward the end of the game that feature a lot of familiar Christmas music are great and memorable. Overall, this game isn't SUPER necessary to play (WB seems to pretend it doesn't exist) but I would definitely recommend it if you enjoyed the previous two titles!

The last entry in the GTA 3D Universe games, but the first in the timeline. GTA VCS is a prequel to the legendary GTA VC and stands on it's own remarkably well. The story is full of 80s cliches, action and the return of some characters from Vice City. Gameplay is a mix of San Andreas and Vice City with the lock on and swimming features that were not present in the latter. Overall the game is a good time and will satisfy those looking to return to an 80s vice city, the performance on PS2 can be miserable at times and some of the missions can be outright unfair but overall I had a great time with this game and it's story.

Just as charming and fun as it was when I played it as a child. Super Mario RPG Remake takes the amazing classic and boasts the graphics to modern standards and the soundtrack to beautifully orchestrated while keeping the gameplay and soul intact. This game is so faithful that I can recommend both the original and this version equally, depending on if you enjoy the challenge of the original as the remake does add a few new mechanics including the chain system and team attacks. Overall it still holds up as one of the best RPGs and a great entry point for anyone looking to get into series like Final Fantasy or if you're a fan of Mario.

Replayed for a refresher before LAD Gaiden.

Yakuza 6 has a solid story that's bogged down by some questionable encounters and an experimental combat style.

This game's story marks the "end" of Kiryus saga and for the most apart I enjoy its story albeit there is some silliness that does not make sense, but it's a yakuza game so. This was the first game using the Dragon Engine, and it shows, physics are funny but the sloppy fighting style (even with the style switch mod) does not compliment the sometimes obnoxious enemy placement in this game, which thankfully improved in future titles. Overall, a good end to the story with some heartfelt moments, especially with the cut licensed music.

My personal 2023 GOTY

Final Fantasy XVI continues the long running series into a more mature action + drama focused direction, reminiscent that of Game of Thrones mixed with traditional Final Fantasy tropes and mainstays. After playing the demo which contains the EXCELLENT prologue, I had to play more, and bought the game day 1. In short the story itself is great, albeit a little confusing. Most of the characters motivations are clear and people who are supposed to be likeable, are which is good. The main villian's motives are a little confusing, and he himself isn't a character that'll stick with you like Kefka or Sephiroth. The main cast however is all great, Cid, Jill and Joshua play well off our main protagonist, Clive. The voice acting in particular is stellar, probably being some of the highest quality and most consistent I've ever heard in a video game going for this tone. The soundtrack is also probably the best one to come out this year, it really sets the mood for the scene and makes those action scenes all the more fun. The gameplay is very similar to that of Devil May Cry 5, being directed by Yoshi-P and all, it's very fun and leaves tons of room for your own play style and combos with the amount of Eikons (summons) you can chain together. Presentation is also mostly good, the graphics are pretty and the cutscenes are a visual masterpieces as always, however this game suffers HEAVILY from bad frame pacing on it's performance mode during exploration which is a real shame because during combat and even major boss fights the framerate is pretty consistent. My only other complaint is the pacing of the games story, this game contains a lot of sidequests which most of are just boring fetch quests. Thankfully most of these are optional but there are a few points in the story right after a major action packed climax where you are forced to do some side activities that have no correlation to the main plot or story and just drag the games quests. I understand they were going for deep world building but forcing these bland and uneventful side activities to the main quest was a mistake and I can see why this would turn off a lot of players. This games highs are so high in fact I am able to look past pacing issues and framerate issues because every single action scene gave me the biggest smile because of how awesome they were. Give this game a try if you like action hack and slashes, or if you're looking for an entertaining story with Final Fantasy in it!

A 2D platforming MASTERPIECE
Super Mario Wonder is the best 2D Mario game since Super Mario World, it stands amongst the absolute best in the genre and probably the best of this generation. The NSMB series lacked character and charm, this game brings it all back. Every stage, every powerup, every gimmick, every piece of music in this game oozes with character and that's exactly the refresh these games needed. The level design is tight, not too hard but theres some neat secrets for those wanting to explore. The new powerups are very fun and once again have tons of character, and the wonder flower gimmick makes every stage worth playing for that extra oomph, you never know what you're going to get. My favorite part of this game is the soundtrack, whereas past games reused the same 8 world themes and songs, Wonder revitalizes the Mario OST with some absolute headbanging tracks, the overworld themes, the underground theme, Bowsers theme it's all amazing. The final boss, while not particularly hard did leave me tense as it required pretty precise platforming and timing to get without being hit. The only nitpick I have is the lack of traditional online coop, as it think it's another highlight of the modern 2D Mario games, however playing this alone also faired just fine.

Fantastic job Nintendo, I was more satisfied with this than this years Zelda release, despite that game being another masterpiece.

The best portrayal of Venom EVER
Spider-Man 2 improves on nearly every aspect of the previous 2 games, there's more missions, more combat options and more things to do. The story starts off pretty standard with Kraven but as you get towards the end of the second act this games version of the symbiote and venom really are some of the highlights. Miles and Peter are fun to play as and have different abilities you can unlock throughout the game, Peter's symbiote abilities are extremely powerful and fun to use. Miles gains electrical powers in addition to his venom powers from the last game. This games difficulty is also a lot harder than either of its predecessors, I played on Spectacular and some of the encounters and bosses were challenging! I do have to say at least early game, a lot of Miles missions feel like they have no bearing on the overall plot, leaving it to Peter's side. I cannot wait for the Wolverine game and sequel, Insomniac did an incredible job at delivering what might be the best superhero game to date.