It's tough for me to rate these games. When I play one, I play a LOT of it, and I have a good time, but they always leave me feeling empty. I hate the grind and the feeling of never being able to see all the content -- it's the completionist in me. And on top of that there's the absolutely insulting amount of advertising for DLC barfed all over every screen and every menu. It's borderline parody and actively turns me off to the whole thing.

Looks great, driving's great, but the vibe is phony and I truly hate the obtrusive attempts at game-as-a-service shit. I don't want to play this for 1000 hours to unlock everything (if that's even possible).

Bits and pieces of this are pretty interesting, and I'm happy to see (between this and Heat) those running the NFS series identify the open space for a racing game that leans hard into the spectacle of street racing. Heat felt like EA (and Ghost Games) dipping their toes in the water, and this feels more like jumping right in - a greater commitment to a street art aesthetic, streetwear, music (didn't really expect to hear clipping. on a Need for Speed soundtrack), the whole nine. Does it work? Kinda.

It's definitely the closest thing to NFS Underground that has existed since the release of those games, and I do genuinely believe that the cel-shaded style of the people (and some mid-race effects) works really well to give the game some character. There's still a feeling of sanding off the rough edges that might scare off the suits, but overall it feels like the developers have tried to make something that they think is cool, and they are a lot closer to the mark than most AAA games get. I do wish they cut back on the talking - especially notable is the fact that the game alludes to municipal politics WAY more than you'd expect from a game that is trying to be trendy, but if it surprises you that "the mayor fucking HATES racing" is a plot point in a Need for Speed game, then I'm not really sure what to tell you.

I don't really want to hype this up too much - your car typically feels like the tires are made of either ice or glue, the game itself often looks fuzzy due to the way effects/filters are used, and even gentle curves often require that you hit the brakes pretty hard - but the core is pretty interesting and I'd really like to see them try to build on what's here for future games. Right now the game simply cares too much to be truly cool, but they're on the right track for giving modern NFS an identity separate from other big-name racing series. I still kinda hate the way cars handle in the newer NFS iterations, but I'm seeing a lot of people offering praise for that specific element of the NFS Unbound experience, so maybe in a few years we'll see this franchise (re-)develop an even larger, dedicated audience of people who are less interested in sleek, unmodified hypercars and more interested in turning the car itself into a form of expression all its own.

A half decent pit of ideas blatantly stolen from other games cobbled together into a survival game based mess. Coming from a developer who is openly and aggressively into making AI the future of everything, jerking themselves off while doing so. Nothing about this game is original, even down to the shitty clashing artstyles evoking a kind of "Nintendo Hire This Man" aura. There's no life, no charm, and god forbid any sort of reason to pick this game up.

If you get it, you're better off getting other games. If you want to spite Nintendo, congrats you're not buying their games anyway so why bother buying this one instead? If you're staying away because you were educated on what the fuck is going on behind the scenes? Good, stay away.

There's nothing good or interesting about this game and it should be treated as it truly is: A soulless cash grab made by a handful of AI bros. If the trailer wasn't widely circulated, nobody would buy it and nobody would give a shit about it. Good timing for bad circumstances.

Y̵a̵k̵u̵z̵a̵ Like A Dragon Mission: “ K̵i̵r̵y̵u̵ Joryu, we need you to save the cancer-riddled children of Sunflower Orphange from the Big Baby Breakdancing Gang! I’ll give you 5,000 Bronze Dragon Points if you can finish them off with this flaming dildo shaped like a copyrighted anime character and livestream it all on Snitch.tv!”

Y̵a̵k̵u̵z̵a̵ Like A Dragon Cutscene: “I’ve survived past the point of death so many times, often in the place of others who meant so much more to me than I could have known in the moment. Only now, as I face my own end, do I understand the true pain of feelings left unsaid. I tried to live without regrets, but the consequences of a life left living are inevitable.”

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Long - though comparatively short by franchise standards - periods of drama wholly contingent on the viewer's pre-existing knowledge of plot and history from Yakuza 0, Yakuza, Yakuza 2, Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4, Yakuza 5, Yakuza 6, Judgment and Yakuza: Like A Dragon exist in tandem with tutorials for complex game systems like "using the map" and "doing a kick", highlighting the epic contradictions this saga repeatedly unfolds and upholds upon itself. If you're an insane member of this subcultural phenomenon and have played through all ten games in the series, there is no spiritual need for anything beyond Kiryu's story, but ultimately all the Level-Up Daily Login Bonuses are in service of this game's overarching theme of going through the duties while you watch the exterior world move further away from you and begin to accept life in the interior world built for you by the actions of your past. Either you're new to this and woefully out of your depth (don't worry, Joryu will help you), or you've always known the man who erased his name and are now compelled by brotherly honour to remain with him until the end.

This is exceptionally lazy even by Cod standards, it makes absolutely no sense that Cod still does the whole yearly release thing, now that they are literally bringing in all the weapons from the last game into this one.

Campaign: I liked MW 2019's campaign quite a bit, for the same reasons many hated it. I thought it was fascinating to see a story with such a warped moral compass, where any action taken by western militaries is justified, and the main thing causing terrorism is too many rules and regulations placed on the police (not that I agree with this, I just found it very engaging and entertaining). On top of that it had very slick audio and visual presentation and some great set pieces. MW3 2023 however has the worst story of any Cod campain by a long shot. There is absolutely nothing memorable in terms of story. It's completely bland and feels like it was written in about 10 minutes. I liked the open ended gameplay a little, but thats not what I want in a Cod campaign, I want crazy action with memorable characters and a fun well paced story. This has none of that whatsoever.

Multiplayer: It plays identically to last years modern warfare, and all the maps are from old games, there's really nothing new on offer here. It still bothers me that they don't use real names and designs for all the guns anymore, I think a big appeal of Cod is the jerking off of military technology, which is cheapened when you're shooting supermarket own brand AK-47s instead of the real thing.

Zombies: I only buy these stupid games every year becuase It remains the only series that I can consistantly get a group of friends to buy and play, only some of which are even that interested in gaming. And the zombies mode was one of the best modes to play with buddies, but much like that last few zombies modes, this is complete shit. Again, it's as low effort as physically possible, no characters, no unique map, it's not round based. Please Activision, just make a zombies only game with all the old maps, that shit would sell like crazy.

This is the first Cod game I've bought while being in full-time employment and just playing it for a couple hours feels like such a waste of time. I could literally be doing anything else, and I'm sitting here, shooting the same guns in the same places at the same people I was ten fucking years ago. I don't even hate this game, the gameplay still slaps (It's literally designed in a lab to be as addicting as possible so not really that suprising). It just brings nothing new to the table.