This (and to a lesser extent the RE3 remake) truly does feel like if Resident Evil 2 was a big late 90s horror blockbuster. So much soul and care poured into this the devs really captured the feel of what your child brain imagined the events and areas of the original PS1 game as looking and feeling like.

Zooming through in follow up playthroughs more addicting than crack, never gets old. Only thing I kinda hate is grenade round hunting as Claire and X not dropping shit if you take time out to stop him but whatever, dope shit.

Holy fucking shit. Can't even begin to express how much my expectations were surpassed with this one. Spending nearly 3 months of my life on this due to work cutting in the way of playing it and wanting to actually shoot for all 4 endings has left me all but satisfied and sated. What this lacks in story (which isn't even bad it's just very minimal and your enjoyment of what's happening is really going to depend on that) it more than makes up for with its depth and difficulty.

While nowhere near as mean as SMT4 or even Nocturne for that matter it readily and quickly reminds you just how important buffs and debuffs are. And god bless it for actually being difficult. Can't even describe the feeling of bringing down Shiva after multiple play-throughs of building my team up specifically to take him down. Really feel if you ever really wanted to sell someone on turn based combat and how it can be genuinely intense it would definitely be this.

Despite everything being a straight banger in the gameplay department it is crusty as fuck with ugly pop in (THANKS UNREAL ENGINE!) and runs like poop due to its hardware, but it sure as hell didn't matter to me the moment that ending credits theme came up after acquiring the true ending. Also, downright obsessed with the cinematography in the cutscenes for this, the zooms and camera tilting constantly is so cool and unique.

So yeah I guess I kinda liked the Dark Souls of Persona 5, but I sure won't be picking it up again for a while after nearly 130 hours of it lmao.

Oh, and do play this one in Japanese. Unlike P5 the dub is not that bueno lol.

Insanely raw as fuck. May not have the same initial impact and shock (HAH) of Bioshock, but more than makes up for that by going all out in being VIDEO GAME. Way more intense difficulty wise too, everything felt more aggressive than the first game. Ending I got may have made me tear up a little.

Nuclear take, but if this game moved at least 25% faster it could pass off as a boomer shooter tribute. All the weapons and gear feel right out of something from that era. Machine gun is orgasmic in this may even feel better than the shotty. Drill is Getter Robo and Gurren Lagann tier so, GOATED.

Honestly musou type games are fun. Shallow nonsense but it activates a trigger in my brain that makes the funny haha chemicals go apeshit when I kill like 500 dudes with a single move.

Feels much better to play than Fate Extella and has better visuals that don't make the characters look as odd from some angles. Game is also more stable, played on Switch with only a few really big hiccups so I'm assuming PS4 version is probably smooth as hell. Only real disappointment is the ending doesn't go for the big spectacle climax Umbral Star went for but it's okay cause the rest of the game ridic fun to play. Probably enjoyed this a lot more than I really should have to be honest.

Anyways, Charlemagne a total bro and goes into the acceptable list of Fr*nch people. While playing as Francis Drake could only think of that one doujin where she gets summoned to be turned into a mindless cocksleeve. Need Tamamo no Mae gf please GODDDDD.

The first few weeks of this games launch is some of the most fun I'd ever had with the entire franchise. Just me and the boys running off into the Ancient Forest on the first day with shitty gear trying to take down Anjanath and Rathalos early? Getting lost in the shitty maze like level design? Finding weird shortcuts and then getting lost cause they turned us all around? Shit was choice.

Would go as far to say the first blind playthrough of this is genuinely one of the funnest Monster Hunter games ever. Playing on a big TV, comfy on my bed with my controller, the size of the world, the feeling of adventure? The presentation is so fucking good even with one of the dumbest stories ever put into any video game I've played.

So what kind of kills this game? Well, its endgame grind and the post launch content does. Reskins of Elder Dragons that hit harder. Going out to get tempered Elder Dragon tracks, coming back to Astera (which has a fuckhuge loading screen), praying for RNG to give you a Tempered Elder, getting the Elder, hoping it drops the Streamstone you want, repeat. For a game called Monster Hunter this endgame loop made it so you were only fighting 5 or so monsters over and over. Don't even get me started on the fake MMO/always online/live service FOMO nonsense this game loves to push.

Is the game terrible though? Nah. Does it become more of a chore to play? Yeah. Should you still play it? Nah bitch if you have Switch just get Rise in March lmao.

If you hated the FOMO in World. It's back in more full force here with for a while (until Raging Brachydios and even then arguably until Fatalis) some of the best gear of the game being only available in a limited time event that would come around bi-monthly.

The Clutch Claw absolutely destroys any fun of this game. It's poorly implemented into so many weapons feeling more intrusive and like a slowing down of the combo than an extension of it. The fact monsters aggression has been turned up too from World only makes it more infuriating when you latch onto a monster (something that is mandatory as hitzones were turned to absolute dogshit and Weakness Exploit was made practically useless without Tenderizing) to soften their hide only for it to do some fuckhead attack that drains all your health in one hit. Speaking of one hit moves. FUCK NOVAS. Whoever is the motherfucker obsessed with every Elder Dragon having some insane nova attack needs to fuck off.

Slinger burst is cool since it actually feels like an extension of your combos and in the case of Great Sword actually allows you to move faster to the True Charged Slash. It should have been all alongside with the wall bang that the clutch claw was used for instead of the shitty tenderizing mechanic.

Endgame is a bit better than World's with the Guiding Lands; an area of constantly spawning monsters for you to fight to level up sections based on all the different biomes you traveled through in the game. Cool idea with a very mixed execution. Originally it took ages to level up areas and if you leveled one up it would make others go down. It was gradually fixed through updates adding more QOL changes (more areas to split points apart to level them up, being able to level some down that you don't go to as much, being able to make monsters fuck off) that made the grind more bearable.

Seeing old Monsters return and reworked so well was a huge joy as well, love World's take on Glavenus and Yian Garuga. Easily the best fights in the game that aren't post launch monsters.

Post launch DLC monsters in this game were definitely a step up from World as well. My personal highlights being Raging Brachydios (with its baller new theme, easily one of the best in the whole franchise) and the absolute motherfucker supreme herald of destruction that was Fatalis. The most brutal and violent battle in the whole game (that wasn't dumb nonsense like Behemoth and Extremoth) that makes you feel like an absolute huge dick motherfucker when you finally take him down. Especially if you decide to go solo from the start like my dumbass did. One of the best fights in the game and a fantastic rework of arguably the most polarizing battle in the series.

Now despite that breadth of positivity let me just say that while Iceborne may not be the worst Monster Hunter game, not even the most frustrating one, but when a game has so many annoying mechanics that it becomes almost as unfun as Monster Hunter 1 at times there's a fucking problem. Weapon designs still suck in this one btw. Or at least did for a while. Insulting that Stiggy Zinogre got shitty slap on designs.

Hope a lot of the cool monsters introduced and returning monsters that were fully reworked in this and World make it to Rise so they're in a game without shitty mechanics that ruin any potential fun they could have been.

Lacks some of the quirks and the forward leap for the series that made 4U such a wonderful game, but more than makes up for it in content and its own brand of anime MHFO esque insanity.

Features amongst many things a Carnotaurus that sharpens its tail to heat it up, a massive cuttlefish that uses corpses to conceal its true form, loli cat girl singing an idol tune for the ending cutscene (???), weapon ults and options to configure the style of gameplay into 4 separate styles (some that even revert weapons to Freedom Unite era combos) each with their own advantages and disadvantages, and super kaiju tier versions of monsters that will test every single bit of skill you acquire over the games length. And this do be one hell of a girthy game.

Was gonna say I hadn't played this in 5 years but suddenly remembering we're in 2022 means I haven't played it in 7 years. Jesus.

For a 14 year old game (yes 14) holds up pretty well aside from the 7th Gen console FOV and insane frame drops when the action gets too crazy. Still looks fantastic, that intro with the approach to the Ishimura stunning; space equivalent of first seeing Rapture. Gunplay rules too went through it on hard-mode plasma cutter only and when you get that baby fully upgraded it is a monster of a weapon. Probably my favorite starting weapon in any game ever to be honest, just decimates every opponent. Also, can I just go and say how surprised I am most of all at how well and seamlessly the cinematics during the QTE grapple sequences would go in and out from the actual combat? It's almost as good as the Heat actions in the Yakuza games. Stellar stuff. Cannot think of any other third person western video game series that has pulled stuff like that off since or even when this came out.

Honestly if I have any negatives about this game besides the aforementioned FOV and frame drops it's that the bosses are very lackluster and all of them besides the Hunter (which is still piss easy) consist of nothing more than strafing and shooting an exposed weakpoint, hell one of them is a turret sequence to shoot weakpoints. Can't have a 7th gen game without turret sequences.

Anyways, basically Alien: Isolation if it was good throughout and not just the grand total of 5 hours that don't feature the alien. Excited to play DS2 again as that was my preferred one.