Basically you spend 35 hours becoming 13th Century Batman in what might be the PS4's most striking open world. Ghost of Tsushima is not a game that holds up under scrutiny; its beauty is skin deep, its textures beneath the vibrant foliage are not as richly detailed as they may appear from a distance. When I am not playing this game, my brain is scrambling for ways to dismiss it, either for its rote mission structure, its paper thin characters, its sophomoric morality or its less than stellar attempts at appearing cinematic. Yet, when I am playing it, it's as comfortable as old pair of gloves. Combat, without the hassle of a lock-on, is swift; riding and movement is equal parts weighty and frisky (it means the game feels immersive without any clunkiness); and, yeah, I am easily dazzled by the colours, from the leafs and landscapes to the various outfits, headbands and sword kits you can equip. I always felt really in the zone coming home, chucking on some colourful duds, and riding around, wind whipping my cape, fully immersed in a smartly designed, satisfyingly diagetic world. This game will live on as "that samurai game that replaced the mini map and HUD with wind and birds", which is fitting. The game is about as nice that sounds. "Yeah, I remember that. It was a fun game". About as much as you can ask for.

A game about a murderous AI's inability to address its feelings and move on from a toxic co-dependant relationship.

So much emotion in the ending, partly from the thrill of the escape, but GLaDOS' song is genuinely heartbreaking. Her arc from wanting Chell dead to simply out of her life pack a real punch.

I found the entire second half of the game and its lifeless depths of a long abandoned facility incredibly depressing as hell. Just thinking of all the lives that went into constructing each area, placing each sign; each terrified and victimised test subject; all the souls that once occupied this site, now forgotten. All that's left are rusted remnants of an industrial scientific horror-house.

I don't know. I can't help but think it's one of the best games about regret and death.

i thought vanquish was almost too generic for its reputation for a while there, and while i don't believe its mission structure ever gets creative enough to justify its cool slide boost mechanic it is ultimately a work of pure joy story-wise and really comes into its own on the last two acts.

i think this game needed to be fused with titanfall 2 so you could run on walls and shit but obviously replace the silly american pathos of boy and his robot story with this japanese depiction of US interventionism and over the top machismo.

i am hyped to play metal gear rising after this because it feels like platinum may have funneled what they had lying for this game's never-materialised sequel into that. this game itself wears its metal gear solid influence on its sleeve already.

few things in gaming as badass as slicing a cyborg in half and ripping its neon spine out in order to recharge yourself up

metal gear rising falls into the same exact hole i'd place vanquish into: a stupidly insane, silly, exhilarating action hiding a fairly politically poignant story that is ultimately let down by some unpolished general gameplay sections. in vanquish, it was the cover system that was a bit of a let down. in revengeance, it's the shoddy free-running mechanic and the poor parry system.

if this were remade today with some quality of life improvements it'd be a real GOTY kind of game. i think ultimately, the best version of metal gear rising: revengeance is what fromsoftware did with sekiro: shadows die twice.

one of the coolest games ever made as is though, no doubt about it.

played on switch, technically

might be the funniest game i've ever played line-for-line. the most operatic too. a new twist every hour. feels like this game is to the visual novel what a platinum game is to an action game; that is, pure insane and beautifully chaotic.

where this game really shines for me though are with its characters. i love them all. it's impressive for a game with no voice acting how well it manages to convey personality through a limited range of still animations and expertly crafted dialogue. by the end of the game i was in love with the whole crew and could feel the affection in the room emanating out of my switch. don't want to spend another day without these characters in my life.

can't wait to see where it goes from here but no matter where i'll always have phoenix cross-examining a bird to remember the pure blissful joy that was ace attorney.

finally - a contemporary star wars property that understands the coolest, most appealing aspect of the saga are the various cult-like weirdos with sword skills, force powers and dope ass robes.

the game kind of fails to deliver a really stand out memorable gameplay experience with its sekiro-like combat (bosses are all underwhelming). and it couldn't have hurt to have some hard puzzles. but it's a satisfying, polished single-player only metroid-like with some okay traversal aspects. really my kind of jam when i am in a lazy mood. and i dug the star wars of it more than i thought i would.

good enough.

like an indie bayonetta stuffed to the point of overflowing with a synthpop aesthetic.

haven't experienced a game that makes such empathic work of rhythm and colour since i played tetris effect earlier this year

cool game

the game is absolute fire.

maybe not as good as bayonetta

but i think it's the absolute peak platinum games game. everything vanquish, metal gear rising and nier automata promised they could be - astral chain is. enjoyed pretty much every moment of this, except maybe the parts where you had to carry ice cream or move boxes (that kind of sucked0.