Playing through this for the first time was such a delight. It has such a strong identity, it isn’t difficult to see why it was successful and spawned as many sequels as it did. It’s kind of crazy seeing how much of the series identity was there from the beginning. It definitely is a little rough in parts, but it’s a PS2 game, I think I can give it some leeway. Some of my gripes, such as the camera being shit and Kiryu almost always facing the wrong direction, were outweighed by just how charming everything else was. And the dub’s not that bad, though I’m glad they went back to JP voices afterwards.
If I was an adult when this game came out, I probably would've thought it was the best game ever.

Weirdly, I think this is the most consistently impressed I’ve been at a game visually on my PS5. In a direct comparison RE4R, FF16 and the Dead Space remake likely all look better, but no the two-year-old cross gen game is what wowed me the most lol. There’s something about how the light hits the weapons in your hands, it activates my neurons I guess. On top of that, the game has great atmosphere and some great areas.

That aside, I really liked the body horror stuff in the factory, Wish there was more of it. I think the factory was my favourite part of the game, I’m not sure if that’s the general consensus though. I also love how hard they commit to the bit of absolutely fucking Ethan’s hands up. I do wish there was a way to push away enemies and something akin to the round house kick, maybe a shoulder tackle?

Glad I checked this one out. Might play the DLC later down the road, though I don’t have much interest doing it now. Not sure where this one is among the other RE games I've played.

Probably the best stealth game ever? It’s pretty radically different from the other Metal Gear games I’ve played and that’s definitely intentional, It’s the titular Phantom Pain. It took me about 65 hours to see the proper ending and I definitely felt burnt out at times. It being the only game I played for like 20 days will do that, I guess. I think I need to sit on it a bit, see how I feel down the line.

The core stealth experience is really, really good. Sneaking past guys and popping them in the head is fun. I found joy in extracting stuff with the Fulton system. This game control’s really well, on controller at least, I couldn’t imaging playing this on Keyboard. But man, a lot of the action heavier parts I found less enjoyable, that last Quiet mission in particular is really annoying.

I need to complain about the stupid online connectivity. If it’s going to split my resources between offline and online then fine, just please prioritise using the online stuff so that when I log in and the servers are down, I’m not immediately in debt.

I had heard for years about this game being unfinished, or at least Chapter Two and I can’t say I agree? Chapter Two felt like the post-game that happened to tie up a few loose ends more than a continuation of the story. I think the true ending is the player putting down the controller and saying “Yep, I’m done.”

Death Stranding was my proper introduction to Kojima’s games, and it’s interesting to see some of the seeds in this game. That aside, MGSV Kojima feels more like MGS2 Kojima then MGS3 Kojima, if that makes sense. There’s a lot to this game that I can’t really put into words, but I really do appreciate it. Someone smarter has likely said it already.

I felt burnt the fuck out near the end but I think I’ll go back for 100% sometime. Good game.