Back before the days that CD Projekt Red were the most hyped and then most disappointing developers in gaming, they made smaller games like The Witcher 2. Despite being simpler than their later games, it still is very much an RPG to its core. People don't seem to like the combat but I think it's fine and the three distinct skill trees over a decent amount of variety depending on your desire to build a swordsman, alchemy or magic character, or a mix. You also have significant choices to change up the narrative including one that entirely changes the middle portion of the game which is something you don't see anymore because games are too expensive to make.

Despite some improvements, I do still prefer the first game over the sequel though, mainly due to the setting. The first game's focus on one city and it's surrounding areas really anchored you to the location and its characters as you explored more of it. The three different locations that The Witcher 2 brings you to aren't bad but they just don't feel as interesting or developed. Visually, they do look really good. Despite being a decade or so old, this games can still look pretty incredible on modern hardware.

It is always nice when a long running franchise is willing to try some drastic changes. After Yakuza 0 to 6, we had a lot of brawling combat. I do very much enjoy the brawling combat and I'm glad it still exists in Judgment, the turn based combat introduced in Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a nice change of pace. I don't think the combat system is all there and can be quite tedious since it is quite easy to just use the same over powered moves repeatedly but it's a decent first go at it. The developers at RGG know how to refine so it will likely improve in a sequel. Swapping between the different jobs is quite fun though and there are some thrilling boss fights.

Storywise, it's mostly strong. Ichiban is a great new character. It's easy to be skeptical when an old character walks off into the sunset for a new one but it's hard not to love the positive goofball that is Ichiban Kasuga. They also make a certain pretty drastic change to the universe which is what the series needs for a new set of stories. Surprisingly, I found the party characters to be quite boring though with the exception of Adachi.

This game also introduces a new city to the series with Yokohama. It's the biggest city they've done yet and it is fun to explore. Like all the other games in the series, there's a lot of minigames and substories to find around the city. There's definitely some fun ones such as the business management or trying not to fall asleep at the cinema. Succeeding at these minigames improves your stats so there's decent incentive to do it.

Overall, there is a lot to like and I think it's good. Doesn't quite reach the levels of greatness of some of the other games in the series because not everything they try works. Still, the series is at a place where I am still excited for the future.

Here is a game that knows what it wants to be and does it really well. It has some decent puzzles and does interesting stuff with perspective. It was a wonderfully gloomy artstyle that enhances the nightmarish atmosphere. The stealth sections aren't great but there is very few of them and they at least highlight the creepy looking enemies. Some tedium can come with solving puzzles in game like this but nothing ever takes too long to do. The DLC while also having a bit more of this tedium is pretty good and worth playing.

These type of first person horror games that have a creature or creatures stalking you that you can't fight back against have been releasing constantly this past decade. Among the Sleep isn't a bad one but it isn't a particularly good one either. Playing as a toddler is a unique wrinkle although they don't do anything interesting with it. The monster that's stalking you looks pretty dumb when you see it but I still managed to get a scare or two out of it. The monsters in these games are usually a metaphor for something and it's fine here. It's not a mind bending twist but it works for the short story they're telling here. The puzzles are serviceable but nothing impressive.

If you want more Black flag, this gives you a little more of it to do. It doesn't really add much outside of a new story for Adewale who is likeable. The city and few little islands aren't distinctive from anything in the main game and you'll be doing most of the same activities. Perhaps that is not surprising since it is a DLC but it feels rote. The only real new feature is the freeing slaves mechanic. It actually is pretty interesting that there are always more slaves despite how many you free showing the endless horror of the slave trade. I don't know if that was intentional or if they just wanted to have a recurring thing to do but it's something to note.

Although the opening text that states the game doesn't hold your hand is fairly pretentious, it is somewhat refreshing to play a detective game that doesn't highlight everything you can interact with. Granted, the text to let you know you can interact with something can be pretty big and serves the same purpose but still. It's a pretty good puzzle game that you have to piece all the threads together yourself. The final twist is a little trite but the game tells a decent short story. Some great looking forests too.

A neat little puzzle game that doesn't over stay its welcome. It does that thing that is always impressive with puzzle games where you're never gated in what you can do at a given point in the game but it's good to come back to levels again for a troublesome puzzle piece because your understanding of the mechanics gradually grows as you play. As good as the puzzles are, and there definitely is some fantastic Eureka moments that you can see leading to The Witness, the movement in the game is annoying enough that going through the steps of solving a puzzle can be a chore.

I'm a big fan of stealth games and with few titles to choose from the genre these days, perhaps I'm way more forgiving of ones that are average in quality but I really enjoyed this game. One of the most important things in a stealth game is the level design and it's pretty good here. There's lots of routes through a level if you seek out nooks and crannies and with Styx having a generous jump, there's always a ledge or rope to climb on giving the spaces a nice vertical feel. There might actually be too many routes through the levels that it becomes overly easy as you can always find away around any guard but it does make it fun to explore.

Styx has a few abilities to help his sneaking. He can turn invisible for a short time which is always useful and a few extra kill moves to make murdering easier. I didn't see much use for the cloning ability at first but once I got into doing the level speedruns, having another body to teleport to was very advantageous. There's also a very basic crafting system.

It is unfortunate that Styx as a character is pretty damn insufferable. His constant self aware fourth wall breaking schtick is neither funny nor charming. I'm glad you can turn off the death videos or I would have lost my mind. In the second half of the game, they start recycling the levels which drags the game down. Going through them again does at least show that there are more routing options to find in the levels but I wouldn't have minded if the game was just shorter.

On paper, I feel Sly 3 should probably be the best of the series. It keeps the fun heist format from Sly 2 while trying to throw in more variety in the mechanics and reducing the repetitive "steal 6 keys" style objectives that bogged the second game down. I just found myself getting bored playing with this game though. Perhaps I was just getting tired of the formula. The increased variety comes with more people joing the gang who have their own special mechanics as well a pirate segment with ship combat. A lot of these new mechanics do wear out their welcome and I wanted a return to the stealth platforming. It's a decent wrap up to the series that perhaps needed a rest.

I'm really not a first person shooter fan but I've been trying to give more of them a go lately and this one is pretty fun. Being encouraged to constantly be moving really stops you from getting bored. Getting health for glory kills or ammo from chainsaw kills both needing you to get close and personal with the demons is a wonderful mechanic. There's a decent variety in weapons and unlocking the perks for each one encourages you to try them all out. The writing, whether it be from the main plot or the bits of lore scattered around the levels is pretty boring but the Doom guy doesn't seem to care about anything going on which is entertaining to a point.

This a vastly better game than the previous PSP outing and what they were able to achieve with that system is pretty impressive. It has the bombastic boss battles and staggering spectacle that the series is known for and slicing with the blades is just as fun. This came out at a time when the series was very much getting a bit long in the tooth but it is a decent entry. They attempt to tell a more personal tale for Kratos but gets bogged down in him constantly being mad at everything and they can't develop him because he has to arrive at his angry righteous self pitying persona for God of War 2.

Arkane are fantastic at making mechanically interesting games with great level design and Prey is no exception. I ignored this game for ages despite enjoying Arkane's work because I find space stations boring as a setting but there really is a lot to Talos 1. Exploring it offers many different options based upon what skills you have and you always feel rewarded for entering any given room. Whether it has neuromods to upgrade your skills or weapon mods, or introduces a side quest or even an audio log or email to give you some back story on the various people on the station. The world building is very impressive with you being able to track down all the residents of the station, dead or alive as well as see where the lived and where they worked and their relationships.

Unfortunately the main enemy in the game, the Typhon, really drag down the experience. They leave a decent first impression with the mimics being able to disguise themselves as furniture and jumping out at you when you least expect it. I quickly tired of them though. To the game's credit, they did try to vary up the Typhon as there are different types with unique abilities and different ways you need to approach them but I mostly found any interaction with them boring. The mechanical density of the game means you always have multiple options so I could sneak by them and there are probably more creative ways of dealing with them than I discovered but they eventually just start filling up the entirety of the station. It ends up hampering the exploration in the latter half of the game.

It's definitely worth a try and I even feel I could give it a replay at some point to try out different skills and get another ending but it's a shame I couldn't enjoy dealing with the Typhon more.

A number of these side scroller games that involve playing a vulnerable figure escaping from creepy enemies through a series of platforming puzzles have come out in the last few years. Little Nightmares happens to be a pretty good one though. It has a distinctive artstyle that really makes those enemies look horrifying. Tedium can sometimes set in with games like this through a mix of constant trial and error and figuring out the puzzle quickly but actually going through the actions being slow but the game does move fairly quickly. It's short which I feel is in the game's favour.

Darksiders proves that being derivative isn't entirely bad when it's executed so well. The comparisons to Zelda and God of War with a bit of Portal thrown in are certainly valid but it is pulled together in a very satisfying and neat package.

The dungeons while not overly complex provide a decent set of puzzles and platforming. The combat is also not particularly deep but it is fun and has some progression and options to choose from. Exploration is rewarded with secrets to be found that can buff your stats. The story isn't anything special with a famous cliffhanger that still has yet to be resolved but the universe is reasonably compelling.

I do like a little bit more puzzle in my Darksiders and this one was definitely more combat focused. Although it took me a while to warm to it, the combat is quite fun. Building up Strife's combo meter to unleash stronger shots is very satisfying. There's new moves and ammo to unlock and if you're into replaying the stages, there's a lot of options for leveling up. The story is probably going to continue annoying fans for being another prequel after sitting on a cliffhanger since the original game in 2010. That said, I actually wouldn't mind a game focused on Strife in a format closer to the other games. What a weird series this has been though.