Parkour in video games will never not be incredibly fun.

It's disappointing that only the Uncharted and Tomb Raider reboot series offer such a rich blend of action-adventure and platforming elements, as they are such a joy to play. As a kid, I loved jumping straight into a game and being greeted with immediate, thrilling gameplay—no bloated opening cutscenes or overlong tutorials. While I do enjoy cinematic games that tend to prioritize graphics more than anything else, it's also nice just to dive into the spectacle of pure gameplay. The Uncharted series nails this with its exciting parkour mechanics that keep you constantly hooked on the screen.

I'm so happy they took everything from Uncharted 2, one of the best in the series, and enhanced it in every conceivable way, delivering yet another action-packed, over-the-top experience. The visuals and environments are stunning, and you can truly feel the passion Naughty Dog poured into this game.

While the story and characters in Uncharted 4 are phenomenal, the combat falls a little bit short. The gunplay never felt better, and it's fun to shoot enemies, but at certain points, it started to feel more like a chore rather than something I was actively excited about, mainly because it became a bit too repetitive. Luckily, the platforming and traversal make up the vast majority of the game.

At its core, Uncharted 4 offers a perfect conclusion to the Nathan Drake adventures, delivering entertaining gameplay that is truly the spectacle of the game and proves that cinematic games can be more than just good graphics. This nearly 10-year-old AAA game is more enjoyable than many cinematic €70-80 games that forget to prioritize fun nowadays.

So no shade to The Last of Us, but I hope Naughty Dog's next game—hopefully not another remaster or remake—will actually have fun gameplay again.

Much has been said in recent years about the unwieldy influence of film on video games, critiques ranging from the length of Metal Gear Solid's cutscenes to the appendix gameplay of Naughty Dog's AAA ventures. Much less, if anything, has been said about the continued, in my opinion, smothering imposition of tabletop games on their digital siblings.

Baldur's Gate is a slog of a game. Companions appear and join at a whim in the midst of a perfunctory narrative about a chosen one burdened by a mysterious dark destiny whose surprises will not land in the slightest without preliminary knowledge of Forgotten Realms lore. Story, characters, twists: these are elements that will be improved in the landmark sequel, one that would establish BioWare as the preeminent voice in the Western RPG landscape. But the first Baldur's Gate's shortcomings aren't just absences to be filled in, but rather hollows that in a tabletop setting played by IRL friends with a passion for the setting, would have been more than adequately filled in. From this light, the emptiness of its story and characters are that much more understandable - that much more unforgivable. It is so clearly an inferior work, and almost makes sense the simplifying trajectory BioWare would take from BG2 onwards.
The sequel filled in the characters with pre-written depth and linearized the story, establishing a narrative territory becoming of video games. From here, BioWare and WRPGs at large would more and more molt their tabletop past, reaching its critical and commercial zenith in Mass Effect 2, a game defined almost solely by the charms of its pre-written companions and ease of gameplay. And though the third Mass Effect would murder that future, Baldur's Gate stands at the opposite end, a fossil that deserved the meteor. In the worst way possible, BG1 is an artifact not only of an extinct genre but a dead optimism: it made you believe video games were evolving.

A very artistic game, I went back to finish it properly having started it numerous times in the past but always dropping off of it at random points.
It's good but it didn't blow me away, the story's very heartfelt and tragic but outside of the two main characters no one else is really developped at all in the 5-6 hours it takes you to fly by the story, the combat is fun and unique, definitely the highlight of the game with it's function mixing system, but it does get rather repetitive as you get in habits of strategies you like.

Control is another incredibly unique experience from Remedy. From its gripping start that left me wanting more, to plenty of secrets and rich lore waiting to be uncovered, it's a game that pulls you in and keeps you hooked. The intriguing storyline, the immersive atmosphere, the amazing sound design, and the sheer thrill and fun of hurling all kinds of objects at otherworldly beings all contribute to its unique charm.

But as the hours passed, the gameplay loop of navigating the same environments, fighting the Hiss, and cleansing the control points started to feel a bit too repetitive. While the storytelling remained creative and engaging, the lack of variation in enemies and scenery became a noticeable drawback. This honestly slowed me down quite a bit as my play sessions became less and less frequent. As much as I love story-driven games, the gameplay loop just didn't click with me as much as I wish it did. Which is a shame, because the actual gameplay with all the fun physics and abilities is buttery smooth.

Overall, I'm glad that I finally got the time to play Control and experience something special. Just like Alan Wake, Control stands as a fantastic testament to creative storytelling. It's a perfect example of how story-driven games can unfold in innovative ways.

And the Ashtray Maze was just freaking awesome. Ahti has great taste in music.

I'll be honest, I am consistently baffled how weird Silent Hill fans are and how insanely hateful they are to anything outside of Silent Hill 1 to 4 (and even 4 took a LONG time to actually get people to agree that its not bad). Im not saying Silent Hill Homecoming ever reaches the heady highs of those four games and I wont ever say its a successful Silent Hill game as its all too flashy, action-like and too on the nose thematically.

What I will say is that even despite that, its still a rather fun, if flawed third person horror shooter. The action is quick, the locations varied and the plot, while its about as subtle as a brick covered in spiders, does provide a few neat little plot turns here and there. Overall its the sort of thing you'd be happy to blast through in an afternoon which is fine and I think people shit on this more than necessary.

The only reason I'm giving this game a 5 star rating is because of Crimson Flower, Edelgard and Rhea. They're the only reason why I enjoyed this game so much.

This game should not have four routes. The concept of four perspectives in a war is great, but it falls flat when the main narrative is only really about Edelgard against the church. Dimitri and Claude are ultimately not important to the main narrative. Personally, I don't even understand why Dimitri and Claude are lords, because they're frankly pretty insignificant compared to Rhea and Edelgard. That's why the routes are kind of a mess.

Silver Snow is just..such wasted potential it's infuriating. It should have been Rhea's route and focus more on her and the lore around the Nabateans. But we got a random lore dump in Claude's route instead. SS should also have focused more on Edelgard and Byleth, because it's the route where you're choosing to fight against your student, but we got nearly nothing out of it. Over the course of the narrative Byleth is given the option to dissent to the war, to express her desire to not fight, and at every time Byleth's worries and desires are ignored and overruled. The route could have also explored Byleth being nothing more than a vessel in general, but all we really got was Seteth taking the lead. Rhea got done dirty
and that's really a shame.

Verdant Wind is nothing more than a carbon copy of Silver Snow, so if a route got the poorest treatment then it's this one. There is a reason this route is full of unnecessary cutscenes and the final boss being nothing more than an ass pull. The music was great, though! I like Claude's design and his personality is intriguing, but the way he was implemented into this game was just not good. He kind of felt out of place? Claude feels like a character who needs his own game, where the plot focuses on his goals etc., because in 3H they fall flat.

Sadly, I have really nothing nice to say about Azure Moon, since it ignored every story aspect in favor of a half-assed "redemption arc". While playing this route I noticed that this is nothing more than a hyperfocussed Gary Stu storyline that gives the rest of the cast barely any room to breath and develope outside of directions beneficial to Dimitri. Everything is focused on him and his manpain. All characters around him are nothing more than sad looking bystanders doing absolutely nothing. Byleth has no agency whatsoever in this route. AM!Byleth is probably my least favorite character in the whole game. The choices you get there feel like they're straight out of a otome game. You see Dimitri killing and torturing his enemies, leading suicidal charges, dooming his army and taking his Kingdom down with him. He even admits killing innocent people and children and treats Byleth and his comrades like absolute shit, but all you can say as the protagonist are lines like "I miss the old you" and I hated it. Dimitri's actions literally didn't have any consequences for him. AM is just about letting Dimitri go wild while his "friends" and Byleth are babysitting him or are feeling sorry for him. If the characters were given the chance to act and talk like normal people then AM would fall apart and the "Savior King" would look bad in his own route. Dimitri just does not work to improve himself whatsoever. In one moment he is a dangerous, aggressive boar who enjoys spilling blood, then in the other he is suddenly the Savior King and everything beforehand is forgotten. I just can't call this poorly written development a redemption arc. That would require Dimitri to exercise a modicum of self-reflection and act on the results, but he doesn't.

Honestly, I think AM should be a bad end and Dimitri shouldn't get a "redemption". Because the plot twist that you're fighting for the wrong side and go down with the Boar King would be a perfect fit for AM. I mean, the route is already actively ignoring the main narrative to begin with and ends kind of on a "bad note"(status quo still exists etc), so they could have gone all the way. At the end AM felt like an edgy side story that desperately forced a "happy ending". Outside of his route Dimitri is pretty irrevelevant. He dies off-screen in 2 routes and in Crimson Flower he is also nothing more than an obstacle. Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I dislike or hate him as a character, because in concept he sounds really interesting. But the execution was very poor.

Crimson Flower is sadly shorter than the other routes and lacks some cutscenes, but the narrative is the most complete and satisfying compared to others imo. I also like that there were no filler maps where you're fighting against some lame bandits. The narrative is progressing steadily with unique maps and without any interruptions and I loved that. You could argue that some things are missing like Shambhala but considering that AM's plot was rushed even though it had 22 chapters..yeah, I feel satisfied with CF's final battle. Did I want to fight TWSITD? Sure, but at least it's the most unique route with different maps and monastery dialogues. Edelgard is an amazing character and the Black Eagles have a great dynamic. They fulfill the found family trope pretty well. The fact that they're the only house that stays together after the timeskip speaks volumes. Also Byleth gets some agency in that route and her heartbeat and original hair color back (which I like way more than the mint green). I love that CF makes you reaffirm your decision to stay with Edelgard, because narratively it's one of the most important bits in the game. It's Byleth actively choosing for herself what she wants, and not what someone else has chosen for her, for the first time in her life. It's the entire point of CF. Byleth making a decision for herself literally leads directly to her regaining her humanity and getting to live an ordinary life. It’s so good how in other routes Byleth is thrust into a position of power for her immortal lifespan - Archbishop or Queen. In CF she’s free. She didn’t just help Edelgard reclaim the future for everyone, she reclaimed the future for herself. With that being said, it's an absolute shame that Byleth can't talk. I get that silent protagonists are popular in jrpgs, but Byleth being also one in a story and character driven game like Three Houses was just a huge mistake.

I'm also glad that this route didn't remove Rhea from her agency. Rhea is amazing in CF because she is not some poor corrupted soul that needs to be tragically taken down. Also we get to see Rhea/Seiros being unhinged (like in the very first cutscene of the game) and I loved it.

Another reason why I love CF is because it shows the emotional growth of Edelgard. Seeing her open up to Byleth and the Black Eagles is quite endearing. She has complex and very relatable, sympathetic views. Edelgard's idelogies and character resonated with me even further when I saw how much despair there was in her situation, where there's an immense ammount of conviction behind every word, drive behind every action, making it feel so gratifying to see it to the end in CF moreso than any other route. Edelgard has a well developed character arc that is thoroughly built-up and impactful where the game doesn't relent showing how her traumatic experiences have so much of an impact on her or highlighting her more questionable acts and how that affects her. She is also a powerful axe-wielding badass with an immaculate design and can be an adorable dork sometimes.

As I said, this game is unfinished and way too amibitious. It was definitely in development hell and should have been delayed again. But I really think Three Houses should only have two fleshed out routes (SS and CF). Because even if they had more time, AM's story would stay the same and Claude would still feel out of place.

But oh well, I still loved Edelgard's story and her impact on other routes. She is easily the greatest fictional character of all time for me and the only reason I enjoyed this game in the first place. So you could say I only love Crimson Flower, Edelgard and Rhea (some other characters as well) and not the whole game.