Quarex

"Cred": Played Wasteland obsessively as a child, played Fountain of Dreams, played every Fallout game on release (except Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel). Fallout 76 is my favorite post-apocalyptic game ever. And I mean even from release. The mass delusion that this game was somehow terrible was the most frustrating gaming experience of my adult life; everywhere I went the consensus was "there is nothing good about this game and Bethesda ruined everything" when I was playing 6-10 hours every day and loving it in a way I had rarely loved any game before or since. The inarguably bleakest, loneliest, most distressing entry in the series (or possibly of any non-horror game), Fallout 76 had literally everything that made the previous three entries in the series great, and far more besides--more compelling voice logs, terminal entries, interconnectivity between areas, mutated abominations, verticality and variance of locales, everything. Except, of course, for human NPCs. Would I want all my Fallout games to be devoid of human NPCs? Absolutely not, but for one game? Yes, please. It was an experience like no other. Their return with the "Wastelanders" expansion was done fairly well, and I love the game as much as ever now, but I definitely miss the early days of Fallout 76 when it truly felt like you were the first explorers/settlers of a once-pristine wilderness destroyed by the horrors of radiation. But good luck explaining that to anyone when literally everyone's response to "I am really loving Fallout 76" is "that's a joke right? I heard that's the worst game ever." I feel so sorry for everyone who believed the lies rather than trying it out.

If you ever wished Elevator Action were a horrifying Roguelike with crafting, this is the game for you. I never in my life would have thought of that particular combination myself, but it is amazing how well all the elements come together to create an enjoyable game. Skyhill is a great combination of simple gameplay with interesting underlying systems keeping you trying new combinations of crafting and exploration strategies to see what will finally work and get you to the bottom of the ****. I probably only played for about 20 hours before deciding I had probably seen most of what the game had to offer, but I was always excited to play again every time I launched the game.

Frictional has made some pretty good games in the past--I played and enjoyed all three of the Penumbra games, and even consider Black Plague to be one of the best horror games ever. But within five seconds of beginning Amnesia: The Dark Descent, I want to throw up--literally. Like, the nausea from the forced camera motion is so strong that I cannot play the game. I checked the forums, and there is no workaround for this introduction. I cannot give a game anything higher than a "0" if I cannot physically play it in the first place. Sorry.