TrueOptimist

So far, so good with Midnight. Obviously we are going to have a similar style as War Within which really worked for me. I like that I can get all my weekly stuff done in a few hours and focus on other stuff. One of the main things here is the long awaited housing content. They really knocked it out of the park with the housing too. It is super robust and you can scale stuff up and down and move it just how you want it and people have been making amazing homes and decor. The new rehauled look of Silvermoon is also great and the zones have all been really fun. They also added hunts which give another way on top of delves to get loot for solo players. This also is nice since doing those gets you credit for the Tier 8 vault equipment and you don’t have to do delves now or as many as you did before so they will not get too stale as fast. The story so far is also pretty good and advancing nicely, always curious to see what they do next, especially with this 3 expansion Worldsoul saga. There is still a lot of content left to come with this expansion, but I am really enjoying it so far.

War Within does a lot of the right things that the last few expansions just have not done. First, as someone that has a lot of other games they want to play as well, this does not **** up your time at all. You have your weekly quests and delves to do then you are good for the week. You could get it all done easily in an afternoon, sometimes just in a couple hours depending on how much you wanted to upgrade your vault rewards. Speaking of delves, these are new here and a super welcome addition for someone that does not raid anymore and wants more single player or 2-3 man content. I was happy I could easily farm all Hero tier gear by myself or with a friend, just doing delves and didn’t have to do any raiding, it felt good. They also started their 3 expansion “Worldsoul Saga” which doesn’t do much here as it just gets into it, but hoping for bigger payoffs down the line. Also, with the smaller zones the dragonriding felt better as well and you didn't run out of charges as fast since stuff wasn’t 1000 miles up in the air like in Dragonflight. Some of the zones are also really cool, like Hallowfall which has a giant crystal in the sky that will change color and the tone of the entire zone. The Goblin zone is also pretty unique and fun. For someone playing mainly solo or with a friend, they are really in the zone here and give us more to do for end game progression and I appreciate that. The end of a lot of severe daily stuff also gave me time to go back to older expansions and finish off stuff I never got the chance to do. Looking forward to seeing where this story goes and the conclusion of it with “The Last Titan” expansion after Midnight.

Retrospective Review: Shadowlands is too much. There are a lot of cool things they added in this expansion, but man is it just all too much. For instance one new thing is Torghast, these roguelike dungeons you could solo or group up for and they were really unique and fun. But, you had to do them ALOT and there were so many of them you could do. They were also not very quick, as some could last up to an hour +. You stack that upon the top of all your other world quests and whatnot, it takes awhile to do everything and quickly starts to feel like Mists all over again. The story people didn’t care for with the Jailer and that whole thing, but I did like the characters and Sylvanas ’ arc. This expansion also seemed to go on forever and they kept adding zones like Zereth Mortis, which seemed unnecessary. I did like the raids, they were cool, but very long and if you were in a legit raid group, doing those all had to be brutal as far as just a time sync, even if you had the bosses on lock. The Maw stuff was another thing that was there and since you could never mount up there until very late in the expansion, it was just slow and a bit boring. They also added covenants which were a cool idea, but I didn’t like how much farming and stuff it required to just max out a single covenant for all the rewards. These were fun to go back to later on in future expansions and max out much faster. They definitely went overboard with content in a few places here, but it still had lots to do if this was the only game you were playing.

Retrospective Review: After one of the best expansions in the series in Legion we now fall to one of the worst. This was a never ending expansion. It seemed to go on forever for one. They seemed to add little things here and there, like every expansion, but this time none of it was very interesting. We still got some decent raids like always, but nothing else really stood out and was another expansion I quit early on. The story was also a bit lackluster and so was all the Azerite stuff they were going for. I just never was a great system. It was just a fairly boring expansion overall, but while I say that, you still are playing new content, new bosses, new raids and if you were a fan of WoW, you get all that, so it’s hard to get a score lower than 7 for any of these expansions.

Retrospective Review: With the release of Legion, WoW finally got some of its mojo back. Legion introduced a slew of new things, including the long awaited Demon Hunter class and mythic dungeons. It also gave every class a class hall to go to and explore with fellow players of the same class. All the class halls were super unique and themed specifically for them. This also all tied into the Artifact weapons they gave us and the questlines that went along with it. The questlines for each artifact weapon were unique and interesting with loads of lore attached. It was the first expansion I really wanted to (and did!) level every class and see their specific weapon quests and class hall. All that felt so good. The Demon Hunter class also turned out to be another really fun class and an instant favorite among fans. The movement and style of play was unique and just a blast to play and move around. There were also several really great raids and raid bosses as well. WoW was back in top form after releasing Legion, my personal favorite expansion, just barely beating out Wrath and BC.

Retrospective Review: Warlords is an interesting expansion. This was the first instance of some personal “housing” we got with garrisons. Garrisons were pretty cool and it was fun to semi-customize it for your own liking, even if there were not too many options. Sending npcs out on missions from your garrison was also a good idea and a concept they brought into future expansions as well. We also got mythic raid difficulty which added a new layer to the endgame if you wanted to push for it. It started with some mediocre raids, but the last couple were quite good, even if they were a bit long. There is still daily quest fatigue here, but it’s not nearly as bad as Mists as they did dial it back quite a bit. The PvP zone they added was a bit of a bummer, it was not very engaging and did not add anything meaningful to the battleground rotation of maps. This expansion was fine, but did not really wow anyone to the degree the other expansions were offering and after this and Mists, WoW was in a slump for sure.

Retrospective Review: Oh Mists of Pandaria…how I do not miss grinding in this expansion. This expansion really was the end of grinding for me. It was the first time since playing in the beta of the original game that I had fallen off before the last patch. I played casually from time to time, but the grinding requirements got too unruly here to justify playing. The raids were also weaker, so the incentive to grind to gear up for them didn’t feel like something I wanted to do at the time. This expansion ruined daily quests, as it was just hours of the same thing every day, it was the breaking point for me. There were some good things though. The land itself was beautiful. I think it has some of the best scenery of any of the expansions still to this day in some zones. We also got the Monk class which was really fun and of course both factions could be Pandaren now as well. While a lot of people dismissed this expansion early, making fun of the Pandaren and doing the “Kung Fu Panda” comparisons, it did add some cool stuff. You had your own farm that you could grow crops and tend to them everyday. That stuff was cool. But add that on top of all the other daily quests you had to do and it just got to be too much and the raid content wasn’t quite good enough, especially the early 2-3 raids that were just not up to the WoW standard. We also got pet battles and that was a great mini-game that added even more stuff to do that wasn't just grinding daily quests. I had a lot of fun initially with their “Pokémon” in game equivalent and it added even more depth to a deep game. But, the daily grind was still so prevalent in this expansion it really killed a lot of joy for people. It was starting to get out of hand in Cataclysm, but Mists really went overboard and took it too far.

Retrospective Review: While Cataclysm was a bit of a downgrade to what we got with BC and Wrath, it still delivered a cool villain, good raid content and great world building. My favorite part of this expansion isn’t talked about much, but it was the total rehauling of the old zones. It was a JOY to go back and complete each zone as it had new and improved story that revolved around the goings on of that zone or the terror Deathwing was causing as he flew through and caused an uproar. It truly felt like the entire game had been revamped and every zone fleshed out perfectly. I ended up going back and doing every zone again just to see all the different story beats and it really added a lot of value for me, well worth doing. The raids were also fairly solid, but a bit of a downgrade to what we had been used to. More races in Goblins and Worgens which were unique, but a lot of people were so ingrained into their main character, it wasn’t something many people explored except for alts. This expansion was still really fun and had loads of content, but we felt like we might be at the edge here and they might have been losing traction soon. However, the revamp of all the old zones for me, really brings this expansion up a lot for me.

Retrospective Review: Burning Crusade was one of the best expansions they ever made, but Wrath was truly the greatest. New class (Death Knight), new zone (Northrend), new tech and story (Lich King saga) that people had been wanting since Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. Everything was here. They also added little things, like different tech for vehicles and questing that no one else was even sniffing at in the MMO space. You also got the 10 and 25 man groups for each raid, not just 1 or the other. You had great rep grinds and token vendors that gave you so many reasons to do content and gear up. It really had it all. It also added achievements which also gave you a lot of reasons to go back and do some old world content and collect certain things. It was a time when it felt like you could actually get every achievement (to a degree), not like today where there are just a billion achievements for everything and if you missed out on a later part of an expansion, you are just too far behind to catch up. But, that achievement completionist thing is a different kind of thing, so I digress. The raids in Wrath were again, a notch above the previous expansion. So many iconic places like Naxxramas (upgraded and revamped. Also people actually saw it unlike in Original WoW where it was just experienced by a small number of players.), Uldaur and of course, Icecrown Citadel. Much like fighting Illidan in Black Temple, fighting Arthas in Icecrown felt like a perfect end to the expansion.

Retrospective Review: While Original WoW so highly touted, Burning Crusade delivered on the expectations of expanding this universe and gameplay. Now when we get a new WoW expansion, it doesn’t quite feel as special. Sure you have new places to go and new raids to conquer, but it didn’t bring in revolutionary features like the first few WoW expansions. Burning Crusade added so much and they refined the design on gameplay loops to make everything a better experience. While the raids in the original game were good, they finally hit everything perfect here. Raids are still largely modeled off of the strides they made in BC. From the tight corridors of Karazhan to the massive Black Temple, it all looked and felt so good. You also had a new land to explore in the Outlands along with flying mounts which were a game changer. There were also a lot of good goals to place for yourself. With the great rewards you got from PvP, to grinding reps to doing raids, there was something for everyone. Each faction also got a new race and technically a new class, allowing Alliance to play as Shaman and The Horde to play as Paladins. This was very welcome and something the player base wanted for a long time. They also added Arena PvP, which was really fun with a group of friends and became the new real competitive way to PvP. Everything they added felt better and more refined in BC. Getting gear and raiding felt better than ever and that sense of wonder was still in the air, even if we were getting into the era of everything being posted online (builds, guides, etc.) It was still one of the best expansions they had ever made.

Retrospective Review: It’s hard to write about a game where everything that could be said, has been said. But, it’s still hard to understate how revolutionary this game was at the time. As someone who played in the beta and all the way through the release, it was something special. Everything not only felt new, it felt good. If you go back and try some older MMOs back in this time period, they hadn’t figured it out, at all. They all felt so stiff and lifeless to a degree. The world, the locations, the characters, the creatures, the players, the dungeons, the raids, everything here looked so good and felt like a proper video game that didn’t get held back by the MMO tag like its predecessors. The main 2 things that separated this from other MMO’s at the time was how good it felt to play and the world you played in and the secrets it held. That last one is really key. It’s hard to imagine nowadays, but we did not have the internet resources like we did then for WoW. While we did have websites like “Thottbot” that helped out on quests and items, it was not as expansive or explanatory as things are today, not by a longshot. There was mystery, there was discovery. Something almost no games have now unless it was just released and even then there are guides and video aplenty after a week on every aspect of those games. Not here. You were just in this world discovering everything along with other players.Builds for instance, they were not set. You could come up with your own. It could be good or not so good, it was hard to tell as damage meters were not a thing yet, you had to go by feel. There were no websites telling you “This is the best DPS spec, do this.” Sure people were discussing that online, but new builds were discovered all the time and breakthroughs in what rotations to use or best armor were not set in stone. Playing as a warrior, I remember PvPing with a fellow warrior that was just destroying everything. I checked out his gear, as it looked odd (not plate) and saw he was mainly using leather pieces, something no one else was doing at the time. But, the leather pieces all had crit on them and with 2-handed warrior Arms build, this guy was just criting players to bits and that slowly became the meta for warriors. Armor was also something special in a different way and that was the look. The armor sets in original WoW looked so good and since there was no transmog, you knew exactly what another player had one, just by looking at them. It was the ultimate status symbol. You felt the presence of a massive Tauren warrior in Tier 2 gear while you were running around in dungeon rare equipment. The look was all super unique and once you got a piece you have been waiting for, you really got stoked for it, which is a feeling long gone from the game it is today. It’s fun to reminisce about original WoW, but it’s also kind of a bummer that the world will probably never see a game or experience anything quite like it ever again, largely thanks to the internet. Guides, tier lists, etc have really taken the mystery and discovery away from a lot of players and while you don’t necessarily have to use those things, you feel like you are behind or hurting yourself if you do not a lot of the time. Vanilla WoW servers try to recreate the magic, but it does not feel close to being the same and will probably never be recreated ever again.

The game was much different from the beginning until just before Lord of Hatred launched. They added a lot of key things that really improved the game and helped you build your character in the season faster and more efficiently. The things the seasons brought, hordes, pits, bosses, all very good and built on a game that was getting better with every season (even if a particular season didn’t quite hit). The story however was the downside of this one. It was very forgettable and more to set the stage for the Lord of Hatred expansion. They also don’t require you to get this expansion, so the seasonal activities are in the zones, but also mirrored in the original zones as well, and these never really got touched. It always felt empty down there. For instance hell tide events, everyone just did the ones above, not in the new lands for the expansion. Same with the bosses, when it came time to farm them for gear, the ones here did not have unique loot, you could just farm the original bosses instead and never touch them. The Undercity was the one thing that was fairly unique, but you could easily ignore it if you wanted to. I was also disappointed that they never added another world boss, so you were stuck with the original 3 still. They did also add that MMO type raid thing for multiple players to go to and it was actually pretty cool the first few times. I liked the concept and the bosses had cool mechanics. However, it was short lived as it was hard to find a group for as the rewards were super underwhelming for how much you had to invest into it. As for the new class, the Spiritborn is super fun to play and has a few really cool builds that feel great. When playing seasonal characters only, it was nice to have another class to rotate to after playing all the other classes so many times. Also, at the end of this expansion, they changed the battlepasses and they were even worse than before. I hate battlepasses anyway, but these truly became gross. The cash shop is also disgustingly priced with $28 skins that are only usable on a single class. Do they look cool? Oh, yea, best skins in the game, by far. Which is another issue. One reason I am not a fan of cash shops is that all the really cool stuff they think of will not naturally be in the game to be earned, they save it all for the cash shop. And even the battlepass skins, they look better than what is in the base game, but still not even close to a skin that is almost the same price as the game itself. Even if I play hundreds of hours for Diablo, I just can never justify spending that much on a single skin (especially in a non-F2P game)

While Reaper of Souls didn’t hit with me the way the original game did, it still was a blast to play and added a lot of cool new things. The crusader class was another really fun playing class that the game needed, especially after spending so much time with all of the other ones, it felt fresh. This also added a fifth act, which was great, and Rifts, which were super fun and the new way to gear, along with adventure mode. They fixed a lot of look issues and made it make more sense, which was great, but maybe this could have been a hotfix beforehand. It still offered the same great gameplay and revitalized the game for a bit. Honestly, thinking back, both of these are firmly merged together in my head as one game now, so it’s a bit hard to separate the two. But, I do remember how much the loot system changed and how much better it made the game in general. Even if spamming Rifts could get a bit tedious, that is why you were there, for the grind. It also improved a lot of builds and gear and farming those set pieces was really fun. Your character felt completely different and way more powerful after getting your build’s set pieces and that was super rewarding. It might be a bit simple by today’s standards, but, I bet Reaper of Souls still holds up.

I was pretty excited in 2012 going into D3, as I liked everything I had seen from preview coverage and so forth. I had not played D2 at the time, but always heard great things. My ARPGs at the time were Nox, Titan Quest, Dungeon Siege 1 and 2, and Torchlight. All great games. However, none of them quite compared to D3. It was just doing everything so great. It was fun to play every class and grind and explore alone or with friends. Fantastic characters and enemies. The great locations that looked amazing at the time. Even in the very beginning, where the difficulty in the end game was brutal, when a buddy and I 2 manned Diablo on the hardest difficulty, it felt really good. Even the auction house they had, I didn't mind it. I didn’t buy anything, but it was a unique idea and I made like $300 on some very mediocre items so that was pretty rad. But, more than all of that, it was just fun. The characters, the builds, the world. It was so well designed, top to bottom. I still refer to D3, to this day, as my favorite ARPG and while I might be a bit scared to go back now after all these years, fearing it might not have aged well…I still hold it in high regard.

A perfect sequel to Vampire Survivors. If they did the same thing again, I wouldn't have hit as hard. This is a great feeling card dungeon crawler with super satisfying combos. The evolution in gameplay from just doing a 2-4 card combo in the beginning runs to 10-20+ combos later feels real good. There is a nice curve in unlocks they dull out and once you beat the last level and get your hand on some gold using that last unlock, you can modify your cards to the max to really go nuts with it. The game is just super smart with how it works and it was a joy throughout. It does only take about 20 hours or so to 100% all achievements which is a lot less than Survivors, but that's ok for now. If it is anything like its predecessor, then free DLC/support could be on the way. Not that I EXPECT that, but I could see them supporting this for awhile.

Pragmata is a fantasticly unique game. It’s not just that mixes third person shooting and hacking in a perfect blend of satisfying gameplay, but it also brings a great story along as well. This game could have been very gimmicky with the hacking/gunplay combat, but it pulls it off so well. What other game dedicates ALL of the face buttons of the controller just for hacking in a third person action shooter? The combat is the highlight of the game for sure, but a close 2nd is the characters and the story. Again, this is another time where they could have really dropped the ball. Having a little kid character in a game is poison sometimes. Are they going to be annoying? Are they going to be a pain to escort throughout the game? None of that here. Diana is a very companion on your space mission and endearing at every turn. I really enjoyed working my way through the moon base and collecting every single item in the game along the way. The red challenge rooms were also a nice spike in difficulty, but nothing too crazy. I did have some issues with the training rooms, as the first 20 or so are pretty fun and provide a good challenge. The last 10 however, were not. The one thing I hated about them was it being very limited to what kit you had going in. I’m fine with weapons/modes they pick, but it takes away all of your other upgrades as well. The main one being movement. By the time you get those last few training levels you are mostly through the game and have been moving around quickly and dashing everywhere with your big boost meter, but these challenges take all of that away and you feel sluggish. It’s hard to dial back in for the movement style courses that speed and boost meter when you are so used to what you are using in the main game, it just feels bad. But those early training missions I did have a lot of fun with and added a lot of content to the game. That might be my only complaint however, which is nice since those training missions are completely optional (although they have nice reward materials.) Everything else is superb. I do wish the story stuck the landing a bit better. I am not saying the ending was bad by any means, because it wasn’t, but I think I would have liked it to have been a bit less predictable and maybe explored a different ending (especially in the Unknown Signal true ending.) Also, for the gunplay, there is no manually reloaded for the main weapon, you have to wait while it slowly charges. This can get really annoying at times, but the more you play, you get other tools and mods that make this not feel as bad. (especially the mod that auto reloads it once you do another hack.)Overall, this is some great 3rd person shootin’ and hackin’. Diana is fun to talk to and surprisingly not annoying. I recommend giving it a try. I wouldn't say it's GOTY or anything like that, but it will probably end up on most top 10 lists this year for sure.

What if Animal Crossing was good? That is Tomodachi Life. My problem with Animal Crossing is that is never really goes anywhere and gets boring FAST. There are aspects I like, but for the most part, that game series hasn't innovated in forever and just dull. Now, Tomodachi life isn't a new thing if you have played the 3DS game, but it does give you a more bigger sandbox to play with those tools. This is basically Animal Crossing for creative people. If you are not a creative person and just want a story and characters curated to you, this might not be the game for you. This game is about making your own fun. Period. Design dumb characters, stupid foods, funny t-shirts, etc., whatever you want to do. You also have say in most of the topics you Mii's bring up in conversation and if you are immature and rude like my dialog was, then it can be pretty funny. That is the kind of stuff that drives this game. You have your shops that sell items that chance everyday. From clothes to food. That is fine (I mean its better than picking fruits everyday in AC). Residents always want to talk and you can give them items, dress them how you want and feed them diarrhea soup if you wish. The one thing I really like is that they don't censor anything it seems. They will text-2-speech all the dumb and rude stuff you can think up. That is great. The bad here is that it might not have long legs. This humor will grow stale after awhile, as the mini games and little events your Mii's want to do are not that interesting at all. After about 15 hours, I feel like I have seen all they have to offer and just making new Mii's, new clothes, new food and new phrases for them, is the fun now. There are interactions I still haven't seen and I do want to expand the island more and design some cool stuff. But, I do not think I will be still playing a year from now. It's still fun, but only as funny as your imagination goes. I do wish there were more interactive things for Mii's to work with. One thing I liked about AC was arcade cabinets or TVs, etc. that you could put in their homes. This game doesn't quite have that. I mean you can give them gifts they take out and play with from time to time, but that is about it. Their homes are kind of static, even if you can pick different furniture or theme sets for them, they will not interact with it at all. That is a bummer and one of my bigger complaints with the game. But, overall this game is a lot of funny if you get stupid with it and design tons of stuff. If you just want to pick apples all day and dig up seashells, then continue to play boring ol' Animal Crossing.

MyCarrer Mode review (single player only): Since I am just a casual player in the 2K realm, I can just go on gut feeling and this feels the same as it did from 2K21. There needs to be more done here. I know they are the only game in town, like Madden is for Football so they don’t really care, but we deserve better. There are still stiff/sluggish animations, odd/awkward interactions, bad AI pathing, balls going through your hands when you try to deflect passes, etc. Even some baffling calls like defensive 3 seconds when the guy you're guarding is barely out of the paint and you don’t have a hand on him. You also lose your grade points in a game for really silly reasons at times, and most of the time there is nothing you can do about it. “Sorry I left my assignment, but I don't think they are passing to Jarret Allen for corner 3 when Mitchell is going to drive to the lane and I want to move over to help.” They also want you to box out a lot, and it never works well in these games as it hinders your movement too much. It’s either box out so your teammates get the rebound, or just grab it yourself as it’s usually hard to do both. Also, rebounds are fairly easy as there are no long rebounds in the game for the most part, everything falls in the paint and is very predictable which is super unrealistic. Getting open and around defenders feels more like glitching out the AI more than doing something smart or clever. There are still bad end of game animations as well, like opposing players dropping to their knees in a game 2 playoff game when they were down 20+ for the entire last quarter. There are also still bad options as well for online play with friends and season, for instance, you can’t do online co-op seasons still and that just ****. I mean how easy would that be for them to do? They try to tie it into their other online modes, but they do not have basic options I am looking for. The fan system is also pretty dumb, missing a random shot in a game wouldn’t “lose” you fans. Also, in the season, your team will rotate in 3 string players at times to start, even in playoff games for no reason. Stuff that just never should happen. Including injury reports when you are in the playoffs of players on teams that were eliminated, like ok, who cares if they are out 2 weeks, They are not playing again until the next season starts. There is a lot of silly stuff like that. The story mode is just ok. Seems like they spent the most time on this for sure. There are a ton of long cut-scenes and just a ton of dialog. Some of it is ok, some of it is really corny and stuff that would never happen. There are also very scripted parts that are just lame and your character acts like a social media baby a lot of the time. They also still call you MP, which they never explain, but I guess the last few games have been doing that and it just stands for MyPlayer, which is dumb as hell. I liked the more unique names like Freq, DJ or Pres. Also, they go far into the season as well, giving you more of that longer than ever before it seems, as usual that story stuff ends about right after you make the NBA. There are goals for each half of the season (and off season) with unique dialog and objectives, like win the NBA cup, win defensive player of the year, etc. They also really flesh out the life for your player and his parents, agent, coaches, etc. I do like the whole Euro-league experience. Instead of college, they have done China in the past but not Europe I believe. One funny thing they do is these social media videos from Shams. They would be fine, but it's too obvious he recorded all of them at once as he is in the same shirt and keeps looking off to the side to read the script. There were also several times I got interviewed at the end **** and they asked about my 20 rebound performance when I only got like 12. Another thing is the music. A decent blend of stuff, most not to my taste, but better than what Madden has to offer. The thing I do hate about the music though is the extreme censorship of the lyrics. Stuff that was played in full on the radio back in the day has to be censored out the ass here. I get you want to keep the rating E, but grow up. What is the point of putting in songs that have to be edited so much that every other word is blanked out? In conclusion, this game is fine, just like the other ones. I just get tired of the same game all the time. I think 2K21 was the last one I played and honestly it feels the exact same. But if you are just wanting a new story mode, this has a decent one with tons of dialog and content. I just wish they cared a little more about the actual Basketball and not make the same game they have made for the last decade. In this age of microtransactions and one studio hogging the NBA license, it feels like we will never get a truly great basketball game ever again, just like football. No competition breeds laziness.

A fun puzzle game that does not pull it's punches. I think some of the solutions can be a little obtuse and a lot of the puzzles are seriously tricky without a couple hints. Luckily there is a pretty good hint system in the game. The story is very classic spy film type story with some humor thrown in. The puzzles are pretty clever, but they will kick your ass from time to time. I think serious puzzle people will really enjoy the challenge of this one.

Does a much better job than the first game in almost all aspects. The story is better, the moment to moment gameplay is more interesting. I still don't think it comes close to the other juggernauts in the genre, like Inside for instance. But, this does improve on the first game. You have a lot more vehicles/machines to use in puzzles as well as some animals. I will say, none of the puzzles in the game are particularly tricky or hard, so it feels kind of like busy work at times. The beginning of the game does drag a bit and feels too similar to the first game though. The story was 100x more engaging this time around, which was nice. The ending was much more satisfying, even if it was more open ended. I still think it needs something else to really push it forward, but this was a step in the right direction. While I gave the first game a 6, I think Planet of Lana II is a solid 7.5/10.

We get it, Balatro, but with Dice. But, this is so much less. Balatro had the benefit of it being a spin on Poker, very easy to learn. If you knew it, you could play and form good combos easily. This is not so simple. There are many effects you can get on the dice and so much text to read, that is all becomes a blur too quickly. Once you are a boss or so into the run, it just becomes mess. You have too many dice, too many effects and it while you can form strategies, it is hard to get much consistency a lot of the time.

Cool concept and works well at times, but overall level design isn't great. There is also some quality of life stuff that is just atrocious, like quick restarts and menu control/feel. Feels really half-baked. And outside of the last group of levels, it really feels all the same with repeating bosses and missions.

Disclaimer: The game is probably more of 8.5-9, but the Switch 2 version specifically lowers it to a 7.5-8. The limitations of the Switch 2 are prominent here as there is some heavy frame loss in certain areas and lackluster graphics in too many areas. Should have played it on PC, but wanted that RE Generations triple pack too much and I paid for it by getting a lesser experience. As for the actually game, I did enjoy myself, but I do think they went a little too far in some places. There were also some story beats that I just didn't think they handled well, specifically the Emily storyline. They also did a bit too much of the "Hey, remember this from other RE games? Huh, do ya?". I don't mind some nostalgia, but this one kind of comedically hits you over the head with it until your eyes roll. The combat is fine, I do like the 2 play styles you switch between. The only thing I did not enjoy is the melee combat. While the parrying feels good, the hacking does not. Leon gets a "power strike" that is just L1 and R2, but it feels like a wet noodle and it don't daze, stun, knock back or effect enemies at all. You are just hitting a spongey bag of flesh. I get they didn't want you to just easily melee through the game, but there has to be a better way then having this attack feel so weak on an otherwise overpowered feeling character. There were also a few gameplay moments I don't enjoy, but they are nothing new for the series. These moments just revolve around one thing usually...a big roaming guy you can't kill. Almost all the games have one and it **** every time. You roll your eyes when they show up, backtrack until they get out of your path, then proceed. They just waste your time/ammo/resources and just not a fun mechanic in any game. Overall though, the game does a lot of fun stuff. While there were some moments I was had a less than ideal time with, it seem to always turn around in the next section. Unfortunately those great areas are too short lived at times, like the mansion level for Grace in the beginning. I would have liked to spend more time there. It also goes a little too over the top in some places and I still think RE in general can't decide if wants to be serious or campy, it never picks a lane and some times the tone shift just makes you shake your head and laugh at how absurd a scene can be. Despite all of that, it is overall a pretty good time.

The premise is good. Heist stuff with a National Treasure type flare. The game is at it's best when it's doing that too. I like the core of the gameplay; Find your way into rooms, explore, find artifacts, plan an escape route and then escape fast. That part is good. Unfortunately, there is the not good and it messes with the core experience. I liked casing the smaller places, but it got to be a chore in the bigger, later levels. Also, early on every other level was a tutorial that seemed unnecessary and bulky to the experience. In between missions you also go back to your hub, which was cool looking, but I wanted more with it. Activities, mini-games, etc., just something more than have long meaningless talks with people. That is one my other points. The story is super dry and boring. It was fine early on, but every twist and turn was so corny and predictable it wasn't worth my time at a certain point. The characters are also super generic, very stereotypical architypes (techy, strong, rich, nerd, athletic, etc.), I wish they fleshed them out a bit more, they all just were very one note and just played their role. I also had several bugs that made me rerun missions and bug UI out at times. The in game save system is also very lacking. You cannot save on missions at all if you quit out. Even if you are one step away from finishing a long level, you start back at your hub if you quit or get a bug or error that closes the game. That is a real bummer and soured my experience quite a bit. This could have been a really cool game if it stuck to the simple planning stuff, exploration and getaway runner, but unfortunately it just falls quite a bit short. Maybe a sequel would clean some of this up, I'd be interested in giving a 2nd game a go.

Really solid game. Fun in co-op. Really makes you feel like a badass, just chopping down hordes of enemies with ease. Can get a bit repetitive in the 7ish hour campaign, but has some really cool moments.

A metroidvania that Hollow Knight wishes it could be. Except for a few long run backs, this game runs circles around Hollow Knight in every aspect. Please keep in mind I did not care for Hollow Knight, but everything that game does wrong, this one does right. From the visuals to the story and characters, every part works together so well. Tons of secret areas to explore and new abilities that make exploring even more fun. The music is also fantastic and it swells as you get further into boss fights, really making them seem grand. Really well made boss fights that don't overstay their welcome and are a good challenge. Just a beautiful game all around.

It's no mystery what kind of game this is after you watch the trailer. If you are into these detective style games like Obra Dinn, Golden Idol or Duck Detective, you will be right at home here. That being said, it is a good one of those. Difficulty wise it's between a Duck Detective and Golden Idol and that goes for length too, coming in at about 5 hours to complete. It tells a good complete story that tracks through all the levels as you slowly reveal what is happening. Not much bad to say about it. There are just a few cases where you find a document naming a person you need to ID but just their last name will be bolded to grab and then you have to find their first name somewhere else, that is a bit annoying. Especially after you might have ID'd this person several other times in previous levels so you know who they are already. But that's about the only negative that comes to mind. I am a big fan of these kinds of games so picking this up was a no brainer. If you were not a fan of the other games that I mentioned, you are not going to find anything new here that will convert you to this genre, but if you are a fan, then you will feel right at home. 8.5/10

A bit of an odd one. It has style, it has mechanics, but both lack a bit. The look of the game is great, but some areas close up look pretty bad. The big mechanic in the game is parrying, that is the game. This is really fun, but a bit janky at times. Overall though it works well. There are some really good boss fights, which is the core of the game. Some areas to explore and collect stuff to upgrade your guy, but it's kind of whatever, the boss fights are the focus. Overall, for the $4 bucks I got the game for on sale, it's well worth the price of admission. Fun fights, fun combat, good atmosphere. It's just a bit janky, which you expect from smaller studio and a cheaper price tag. Worth checking out. 7.5/10 (rounded up)

Friendly Kerbal. That's this game. It is super accessible and eases you into harder missions in a smart way. the FMV YouTube video story isn't the best, but it serves the plot. The messaging in that is fairly eye-rolling super strong anti-capitalist messaging. But at least when the characters chat with you, you can talk **** to them and be an ass, which is pretty funny. I just really liked ship building system. It slowly upgrades over the course of the game and eases you into harder builds. The game revolves around different challenges you receive from people and they are all fun, unique ways to make you vary yours builds and try new things. I think this game is super overlooked and does some things not many other games are doing and doing it in an interesting way (uploading videos of your rockets to your fake YouTube channel). If you tried Kerbal and liked it or tried and it thought it was too much, I would get this one a try. It's doing stuff on a smaller scale, but later gets into some cool stuff and it's all easy to do because of the simple interface.

I am a fan of all these investigation games that have been coming out lately (Obra Dinn, Golden Idol, Duck Detective). This one is more like a serious Phoenix Wright, which is cool. They really did a great job with the theming and look for the game. Everything looks fantastic. The subject matter is also super interesting and history buffs of WW2 era Germany will have lots to engage with here. The game only goes over 2 cases, but both are fairly long, about 4-5 hours each. I liked planning the case on the blueprints and combining the evidence as well, that felt good when it all comes together. Wish there was bit more here, but its all done so well with lots of care, so its hard to ask for much more.

Love the concept. I think it works for the most part but a bit bogged down by all the weapons you get. Each riff kit for them is unique, but early on when you get them they put enemies in front of you that really require you to use them. So you naturally just move away from the first weapons quickly and end up using just one of the last 2. I like the concept of different instruments but you cant really use them all a lot, most people will just stick to the one they like and never use the others after awhile. The level design is fairly basic with collectables that are easy to find. The combat is really fun once you get it going with all the mods and riffs in your deck that build off one another. Really cool bosses as well. I was hoping a bit more though after reading glowing reviews on Steam. Still a fun game though.

Four short stories that go nowhere and are not that interesting. All are in different art styles and those are nice to look at, but at about 10 minutes per story and none of them grabbing me, it just was kind of like, Ok, guess that was a game. Even at the 3 bucks i paid, I still feel I didn't enough. It does look nice **** there is that...

I am not a fan of the Silent Hill series. I've seen them from afar for years and always thought they were kind of dumb. I've only played one before this game and it was that free PS5 one a few years back and I absolutely hated it. So why did I give this game a chance. Well, for one, the setting, it had me intrigued. Also, listening to a lot of GOTY podcasts, this was coming up a lot and people seemed to like it. Also, it was like $32 on sale, so that was the tipping point for me. As for the game, I didn't hate **** looked nice...good theming, etc. However, I am not a fan of games being obtuse, just to be obtuse. I feel like I got no closure at all. I had to look up all the finer points of what actually happened and for a lot of my questions, people still don't really know or its intentionally vague. That is not satisfying. At all. I get what they were trying to do and if you are in to that, great, I am genuinely happy that it all worked for you. But I felt a bit empty inside after finishing it, just scratching my head. Maybe I'm just dumb (guilty), but I just wish they went in a few different directions to give me just something to hold onto. For gameplay stuff, I think the combat is run of the mill for these kind of horror games, so its "bad on purpose", I guess. Puzzles are very lack luster and some are actively bad I'd say. They are also thrown in at odd points, like "Oh shoot, I guess we haven't had a puzzle in awhile, let's throw one in here" type vibes. Boss battles are kind of a joke, very simple, easy. Also, the game for the most part is super linear, but that is par for the course in these types of horror games I guess. I am teetering on a 6 or 7 for the score, but I ended on a 7, because I didn't have an awful time playing it. Some parts were genuinely cool. But, at some point I think they lost the plot and it became something a little too out there for me and my tiny brain.

The only downside to this game is the price, let's get that out of the way. $30 for a 45 minute game is just too much. There is replayability for sure and different endings, but it just needed more. I would have liked to see a 3-4 hour campaign and some extra modes that play off other others Terminator games. That aside, this is a great game. You can tell how much they care about the Terminator IP. Everything you want is in this game from that franchise. The pixel art is super top notch and looks really good in motion. I do like that there are alternative "what if" paths in the game as well. I feel like if they extended these levels out, added maybe a co-op options, a few modes...this would be a 10/10 no question. However, the run time is an issue and it doesn't have those extra modes I wanted. But, if you are a Terminator fan, this is game you must play, just not necessarily at $30.

Great story telling and world building. It also looks amazing. Some dialog can be a bit corny, as they go for some "The Boys" type humor and it can be a bit eye-rolly if you are not into that style of humor/dialog, but it was really good about 95% of the time. I was a big fan of The Wolf Among Us and up until now, that was probably my favorite, Telltale narrative style game like this, but this is better. The main gameplay (besides selecting dialog options) revolves around 2 mini-games, Dispatching and Hacking. Dispatching is actually really fun, I enjoyed deciding who would go out on missions, building stats and synergizing with different heroes. There were a few missions you fail because of just RNG, but it's all part of the game and in the end, even if I failed more than I wanted to, I still maxed out my dispatcher level, not that means much to the story (I don't think?) It would be nice if there was just a mode after you finished the game to just do dispatching, as I did want a big more of it, even if you do a 1-2 sessions of it every chapter. The hacking isn't something you are doing a ton, but I did also like the hacking mini-game. Obviously this is a game about choices and branching paths. I did like the way my story turned out, but I am also interested in the other paths I could have taken. This will probably be one of the few times I go back and play one of these style games again, but with completely different choices to see how that plays out. Maybe it will mainly be the same, but I am curious to see how they handle certain things if you are down the other path. If you liked any of the Telltale games and enjoy superhero stuff, this is definitely something you will enjoy. Lots of good voice acting and story that makes all the characters endearing in someway. Even if you are not a fan of QTEs, you can relax and turns those off, but I do think they add a bit more engagement to the fight scenes. Glad it has both though, so the player can choose. Overall just a fun game with memorable characters that is definitely one of the better games to come out this year. 9.5/10

Incredibly disappointing sequel. I really enjoyed the first game and maybe the first fifth of this game. It quickly rehashes a lot of ideas the first game had and never really feels like a true sequel. It also forces you to do a lot more BS to get to the ending as just finishing all the unique level stars isn't enough, you have to do almost all the prankster stars as well. Some of the level design is made for a character that controls much better than Mario. A decent amount of trial and error that is just frustrating. This comes from unclear goals or just poor level design. The game also is a step down in theming. Rosalina's cool space station ship from the first game is gone, and now you have a tiny Mario head that takes about 2 minutes to explore and there isn't much here. Even the level select is lazier as it is just a tradition Mario path through levels instead of the cool galaxy view they had in the first game. For the boss fights, like the first game, a lot of repeats. Some stage fights are decent and unique, but the big Bowser fights all repeat. Even the last fight is a repeat fight, just with one extra bonus easy phase to it. But thinking back, Bowser fights have always been repeated in these 3D Mario games and never that good really. Overall, while there are some decent levels and the game looks great for a Wii game, there is just an abundance of issues here I cannot overlook. Even the decent levels are like B, B-'s. I was rating levels in my head and I think maybe 1 level out of the 71 stars I got was an A tier level. Lots of D's in there and that doesn't make a great game. 6.3/10

Just a nice relaxing hour long experience about cleaning up ocean waste. Good physics and really clean pixel art.

I was looking forward to this game, despite not having any love for the Prime series. I am way more into the 2D Metroid games and none of the Prime games did anything for me. Even when I tried to revisit it last year with the Prime 1 remake, I just hated it. I thought this time would be different, as its a whole brand new thing. And I think, all said and done, even if this isn't a great game by any degree, it still might still be my favorite entry in the Prime series. For starters, the game does look really nice, but when you really start staring at the details, it is really rough around the edges. Definitely some Wii era textures in some spots. But overall, the games does look great from far out, including Samus suit. The other characters, not so much, super generic soldiers with some personality. You see their faces like twice in the entire game and then it gets covered up. They are devising, annoying at times, yes, but overall there are bigger issues with the game. The open world for one, is just disappointing. This is Mario Kart World all over again, but worse somehow. An open world for no reason and nothing to do in it. Collecting green crystals is fun for about 5 minutes and they want you to do a LOT of it for really no reason. To extend the run time? The open world also puts more distant between the dungeons which adds more unfun backtracking and load times. Backtracking has never been fun, in my opinion, in the Prime series, but here it was even more of a slog because of the extra travel area. The bike feels ok, not great. Just give me more to do in the desert with it, races, challenges, combat, anything! The dungeons are pretty good, this is where the game shines. To the big ones to the tiny puzzle ones that are like the Zelda shrines. The shrine like ones are cool, but there are like 5-6 of them? make 20-50 of these, this would have been very welcome. The big dungeons look good and are really fun the first time through (back tracking, not so much). The areas are well thought out with lots of secrets. The boss fights are subpar I'd say, some are good, some are pretty bad. They all, however, feel like a fight you have done before in these games, nothing new here, every standard stuff. Overall it just feels obvious this is not the game they wanted to make, there is just some many glaring issues and missing content, I just know they didn't want to ship this game this empty. But they did and this is what we got. At time I felt like the game was around a 8.5, had some good moments, but the lows are like a 4-5. It's definitely not a bad game by any means, just more disappointing. The ending doesn't help with things either, yikes.

Very short 20 minute experience. Still a decent little detective game for the length. Would enjoy more content in this style in a longer form game.

I slowly had a better time the more I played this game, but it definitely can feel really unfair at times. Runs are lost are won usually in the first 2-3 rounds, getting items later helps of course, but those early items that build your multipliers and such are too key. If you don't get any, its basically a game over. I like the look of it, very simple but effective. I wish there was a bit more story though, they could have done a bit more. One aspect that you unlock about halfway in are the mystery cards and I thought those were not great. I never got one I liked, they all seemed too risky and on top of that, you only get one play with it. Just a system the game really didn't need.

Really fun detective game. Cool to see a mythology you do not see explored too much in games. Good sub-stories and mysteries to solve along the way. Great voice acting and characters all around. I just wish there was a bit more of a hint system than what is in the game. There were several times I was stuck and just needed a single piece of evidence to solve a mystery but had no idea where to go. The only hints they give you are very vague sometimes and just not that helpful. Sometimes it was looking at an item I had already seen before. There is a lot of backtracking around the manor, which is fine, but I also found myself going back in room I thought I had already explored. It was just hard to tell at times what exactly I had to do or trigger to get to the next step of whatever mystery I was working on. Still a really fun game that has a cool look to it. If you are a fan of any of the detective type games like Golden Idol, Obra Din, or even stuff like The Roottrees are Dead, you should try this out. 8.5/10

Great co-op game (as you expect from this team), concept is great, it's **** story is very simple with a predictable ending. I enjoyed it, but it felt a little soulless I guess. Almost all levels and concepts lifted from other games. It's like a world tour of the greatest hits of other games. "Here is the bit that looks like Dark Souls, here is the part that looks like Donkey Kong". It really is a grab bag that goes beyond just "inspired by". And I really mean almost everything. If you are well versed in other games, you can pinpoint all the mechanics or levels from other games. That means nothing in the game is fully unique but the concept itself, which is good. Except maybe some of the ending bits, that stuff is fairly unique. And just doing all of this in one game, co-op, different perspectives, is still really cool. I don't want to take anything away from that. The main actions of your characters, running, jumping, dashing, grappling, all feel pretty good. Which is good, since you are doing it a lot. As the the other actions that are specific to what part of the game you are in, I think they do a great job at constantly keep it changing to where one section never feels boring or tired. Even within a world (sci-fi or fantasy) you find smaller glitches that have a side story level with the opposite of the world you are in, so it even breaks that up, so you are not doing like 3 hours of sci-fi all at once, for instance. Game looks real nice. I think the characters looks a bit funny, not super realistic, just a bit goofy. The game has some really cool vistas and areas to look at and loves to do the big revel of an era, akin to something like seeing Rapture for the first time in Bioshock, just an "open this door and check out this view" kind of thing. I like that in game, but this one does it one to many times it seems and while all those areas look nice, it kind loses a bit of meaning when its done so often. I liked It Takes Two a lot and I think this is better than that for sure, there is just more going on, even if a lot of the basic running around feels really similar. I think the worst thing you can say about the game, other than the story being very generic, is I think it plays it a little too safe, but I guess a lot of that is on the story side of things. Also, the characters work is fine, I think they become a bit more likeable later on, but both characters are kind of annoying in their own way. Overall I still not quite sure how I feel about this game. I think soulless is still an apt term for it. But, do not mistake that for bad, this is still a really solid 9/10 game with lots of fun mechanics and playing co-op makes it more fun by default. Definitely worth playing, just not a GOTY contender.

An ok point and click adventure game. It is much different than the short story (which there is an excellent audio version of). The scenarios set up in the game are interesting to get a bit more backstory on the main characters from the original story. I do think the mechanics are fairly simple here, some times these point and click adventures get to complex with action list you have at your disposal and some options are hyper specific. Here it is a bit more lenient, for example you can usually push or use to use doors or some objects, its not just one or the other. As for the story scenarios, they are pretty good, although the real pain comes from is doing them without making mistakes. Like a lot of these games from this time, its a lot of trial and error, but here, you can screw up so much on meaningless actions that could ruin the game way down the line. I usually don't like using guides in general, but for a game like this, I highly recommend it. It will save you so much trouble from the pixel hunting and random decisions you could make that screw you over later. Because of that and how obtuse some of the solutions were, the score here is fairly low.

I actually really enjoyed this one. First off, its a sharp looking game, which is to be expected, but it definitely holds up. That is with my Wii running through a HMDI uprezzer though, so keep that in mind. As far as gameplay goes, being left handed I had to switch the nun chuck to my left for movement, to making me have to aim at the screen using my less dominant hand, which wasn't ideal, but it worked fine. Pointing at the screen and aiming isn't a precision action you need to do all the time in this game outside of hitting enemies occasionally, which wasn't too much of a hassle. The platforming is 3D Mario **** for sure, but with nun chuck it made it just a tad harder. I don't think those control great in normal circumstances, so here I was glad it never really asked to much of me because pulling some stuff off would have been a chore. Overall though, the movement was fine considering how nightmarish I thought it might be. But, there are some levels and areas where it was a problem. Specifically a spider boss early on where you have to run 2D style around a circle. However left and right move it when you are at the top and bottom of the screen and then stop working when you are left or right, that is when up and down move you. It was a complete mess. You would keep movement if you held it down, but let go for second and then you would need to hit the other direction if you weren't in position. Hard to explain, but let me tell you, it felt like ****. I wished it stopped there, but unfortunately, I'd say out of the 63~ stars I got, I'd say 8 or so of those levels felt bad. And not like, eh a bit worse than the rest, but no, utter trash I'd say. Wii shovel ware levels of bad camera and movement. Luckily they were semi spread out, but man, it is a knock on the game for sure. The level design is the next thing I noticed. The creativity in this game trumps all of the previous entries in the series. Very creative levels on display here. A lot of them are short in sweet, as they seem like they had a little idea for a fun globe like level, you do it and then on to the next. You are never really staying in one area too long. Sometimes is seems a little disjointed, as levels go from one thing to another that sometimes are loosely related theme wise. Most of the time the theming is well done though, as each galaxy has a specific theme and the main island of each zone will feature that in a bigger way, so zones better that others. But these all work really well for the most part and there are lots of fun levels. The bosses on the other hand, some were really good, but like the spider boss I mentioned before, some were not. The Bowser fight specifically was good once, but all 3 times you fight him, including the last stage, it's the same fight. That's not cool. The main thing about the game that impressed me, was it kept me wanting more. Even after I quit after a play session, I turn in back on after a few hours, as I was craving more. I think it just just the addictive quality of the level design being creative, interesting, and short. In this day in age of the short attention spams, I think this game scratches that itch.

I was a fan of the first game, I think I liked it more than most people did. This game might be better in most ways (gunplay, combat, exploration, worlds) but I still don't think I had a "great" time with it in the end. It's odd, I had a good time killing things and some dialog stuff was good (humorous or clever writing) but there were too many areas with so much eye rolling dialog I just did not care about. On top of that, you had no factions that you wanted to pull for because they call **** in their own way. And the story, while it lets you get real silly with it at times (even bigger moments) still gets fairly serious at the end and just eye rolling talking and talking about stuff I stopped caring about long ago. Your companions were ok, better than similar games, but not like Mass Effect level or anything like that. As always, even with the Leadership skill (to make them do more damage) these games never let your team do much of anything and you can easily take care of things on your own. The crafting is another system they built that just not worth spending time with. I crafting a lot of ammo with it and like 2 mods (same one twice) and that was it. Also, there are a lot of fun guns to use in this game, but I mainly stuck to 2-3 that made the game (on normal) a breeze and used them for over 2/3 of the game or so. Overall though, this game is still fun to play and explore. I put a lot of value into that. However, I just wanted more with the story. I still want to do a quick dumb trait playthrough, as the last game had that and it was so good. I am hoping that helps me enjoy the story more walking around as dumb idiot than the smarty pants scientist I played on my first playthrough that always was a few points short it seemed of getting good dialog results.

While Illusion Island is not a great game, the platforming is solid and is a decent time if you are playing with friends or family. I liked the cutscenes, where it was basically just a full Mickey Mouse cartoon and it was fairly humorous, you know, for what it is. I wish it wasn't so backloaded with those scenes though, as you get 1 at the beginning and 3 at the very end. Those could have spread out a bit better. As for the actual gameplay, I think the running and jumping feels pretty good, which is good, since that is all there is. No combat whatsoever. I think the world is way too big though and they only give you fast travel at the very, very end of the game. The boss fights also go on a little too long and all of them are really similar. I would have just liked a bit more variety in general for the game. It's still a decent little platformer and I completed the entire thing in about 6 hours.

This game is not without it's problems, but it is still better than the last few mainline Pokémon games. However, it does fall way short of the huge success Legends Arceus was. Arceus was a vast open world and really showcased what I wanted in a Pokémon game. This takes some of those features and unfortunately, neuters them down. The vast open world is gone, we are just left with a city and while is is a decent size and fun to explore for a bit, after 10+ hours (about 1/3 of the game in) it starts to get stale. There is no verity in scenery here. That aside, the combat system is new and for the most part, feels pretty good. I like how chaotic and action originated it felt in the beginning. However, once you start getting into the later parts of the game and have to face multiple Pokémon, it kind of is just a mess. It is a good idea, that just needs another game or 2 to flesh out the kinks I think. The story is nothing to write home about (like pretty much every Pokémon game) but that is nothing new here. The beginning of the story is especially bad, as the situation they put you in is just not thought out well. You are a tourist, who traveled to a new city on vacation...with no Pokémon on you...your character is old enough to know weather or not they want to have a Pokémon as a pet or travel ****, you come alone. You then are forced into this tournament to fight with Pokémon that your character seemingly isn't into, or else they would have brought their own. And then you are in this tournament and doing quests in this town for who knows how many days, when you are just suppose to be on vacation. None of it makes much sense, at all and usually I don't let these kind of things bother me, but this one I thought was pretty badly thought out. I do wish they would trust the players a bit more, I do not think we need so many tutorials. People know what Pokémon is and even if the combat is touch different, we can figure it out. They explain Pokémon to your character like you have never even heard of them before, it's not a new issue, but still annoying they think a character from this universe wouldn't know basic things. Overall though, there are still fun Pokémon things to do for you here and still feels good to catch 'em all. I just wanted a bit more after Arceus was so good and one of the best Pokémon games we every got. We didn't need online, trading or battling, just keep it simple for the Legends series.

PlatinumGames does great combat, this we know. I just wish the other aspects of the game were more fleshed out. Right off the bat, the combat is super fun and when you get into a flow state, you feel like a god. However, the story and the level design, the sword sponge enemies...everything else about the game is just very bland. There are some fun boss fights, but then there are at least 3 they repeat as a 1/4 of the game is basically replaying some of the levels you already did. That's just not fun, even if there is a bit of a twist on it. It seemed like just a means to extend a game, that when all is said and done, only runs about 10 hours for the main story, although they give you a few more game modes as well. But really its just combat arenas along with harder difficulty modes. I played the remake of 2 that also came out this year and that still felt like a 360 game. This feels better than that, but a lot of the level design and story telling are stuck in that era. Overall, a fine game to check out if you have GamePass or a diehard Ninja Gaiden fan.

It's been awhile since Ghost of Tsushima and I kind of forgot how good these games are. While it has your fairly standard open world stuff, its not full Ubisoft with it, although it's pretty close. That doesn't stop it from having a great story, characters and a jaw dropping environment, that never stops to stop you in your tracks with just how good it looks. There is a good amount of content, as you would expect for a game such as this. It took me a little over 50 hours to 100% it and I never got bored throughout it all. The only knock on it might just be that we have kind of played games like this before. Not just with Tsushima, but other open world games, even if this is a top notch one of those. Also, there are some main story beats that leave you scratching your head a bit, wondering why the characters would do certain things that just seem a bit dumb. Other than that though, it's a great game and if you liked the first one at all, or just a fan of open world games, this is an easy recommendation.

Great roguelike game that just hits the sweet spot in satisfying gameplay. A mashup of other fun genres we have not quite seen before, but it works so well. Tons of characters that all play very differently and tons of balls so your runs are never quite the same. The town element is also really fun, as you are pinballing your way around to gather resources and construct buildings. It just works on pretty much every level. And at $15, it's a no brainer to pickup.