Keeping with the trend of evolving in each entry, Underground is the first Tony Hawk game to introduce a story, and a surprisingly good one at that. It's nothing spectacular, but I think it's fair to say it's a lot more competent than anyone was expecting of a skateboarding game. The gameplay feels smoother than ever and is, once again, complemented with more new mechanics like getting off your board and wallplants, and some smaller things as well. It also added some more polarizing things like the vehicle missions that, even as a kid, felt out of place in the game, but there's only one per level so it isn't too bad. Complete with one of the most annoying video game villains of all time, THUG is still a very fun game to this day.

Phenomenal ending to the trilogy. Part of it is nostalgia from nearly two decades ago, but the game still holds up very well. The campaign is incredibly engaging the whole way through and keeps you playing at every turn. With the prior games already being great, everything now is just more polish on top of what already felt fantastic to begin with. As is typical with Halo thus far, the atmosphere's great (helped by the fantastic music much like the past two), the set pieces and level design are beautiful, the combat's tight and fun, it's an amazing experience overall and the type of game that leaves you itching for more.

Max Payne 2 is basically more of the same of what you got with Max Payne, which isn't a bad thing. The gunplay's still just as fun as the first, though it does seem a little less forgiving with death coming just a bit faster. The story is less on the campy side this time around, though it still has its token bizarre moments which is great. The environmental storytelling that came in the form of interactions around the world in MP is replaced (mostly) by TVs around the world that all have a variety of different stories (including a parody of Max Payne) going on throughout the game which is pretty damn cool. There are two missions in particularly that were pretty grating, but forgivable because one was kind of badass (stress aside) and the other was pretty funny. My biggest gripe with MP2 is simply its length, having finished it in just 4.5 hours where MP was probably closer to the 6-7 hour length for me. Other than that, it's just as great as the first was, excellent follow up.