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.

GTA VI leaks got me kinda hyped to reinstall this but my real want to replay it came from Pikamee's playthrough a few years back. Sadly for some reason the game didn't want to work then so here we are now lmfao.

Holds up pretty well besides the usual Rockstar jank and herding towards completing missions in a specific way the developers demand unless you want to fail and very obviously looking like a 2013 PS360 game no matter how much gloss the 8th and 9th gen consoles and PC releases add to it.

Probably the best overall "game" of Rockstar's HD era so far in which I actually have fun playing through it (even doing replays with the rereleases) while something like Red Dead 2 is on the opposite end where I'd rather be watching it as some insane sicko mode Oscar bait film than playing or doing replays of it. Somehow also probably the funniest game I've ever played. Still get laughs outta so many sequences and dialogue to this day. Immensely quotable and immensely satisfying final third.

Hope 6 is just a vile and crass Michael Bay rendition of Florida crossed with The Beach Bum the same way this felt like a vile and crass Michael Bay rendition of California.

Anyways, California fucking sucks. Incredible music choices for the licensed tracks still go and search a bunch of them up to this day. This shit really came out 10 years ago huh...

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.

These are just quick thoughts on it right now I guess I'll have something better to say like I do with MH games a year down the line as long as I remember...

Anyways I don't really play the gacha cause I ain't about that shit. I just really like fem Draphs, but putting that aside this shit always looked neat (Japan the only place really doing crazy fantasy settings that get my bonger going, shoutout to DD and Dark Souls) so I got this and I'm glad it really is cool. Don't really got much to say beyond it's one of the funner anime/animeesque fighters and the implementation of rollback netcode is a huge boon to it. Main thing that kept me away from the original release and DBFZ. Also shit dawg it was free so why not?

We will be playing Relink. Surely it will not get a last minute delay.

Rose stuff is cool if a bit short, but that's usually the case with extra story sections in RE games. Love that it's earnestly schlocky without ever falling into irony poisoning over how silly and melodramatic it is. Don't know if I'll go back to try to finish it faster or on harder difficulties but after running through the main game like 9 times now I'm all but burnt out on RE8.

Third person mode also cool and surprisingly enough makes parts of the game way easier. I can go for either or even if I eventually just went back to first person after a couple of runs.

Merc mode stuff I never really touched cause I didn't like it to begin with in this game and I only did enough to get the 30 kills combo for some extra points to get the infinite S.T.A.K.E. in the story mode lmfao. RE5 remains the peak for merc mode.

Pretty good content for the price though. Initially feared it was gonna be like 40 dollars for some reason, but it's only 20.

Got a hankering for this again after last playing it like mid 2020 during the early pandemic days and honestly? Simple as hell game, but loads of fun, even if it runs like absolute dogwater on my PS4 Pro. Love that the game ain't that long either. 12 hours doing everything this playthru and around 16 my first time around. Wish more open world/sandbox games were around this long to be honest.

Really hope this gets a sequel that goes full psychopath like Jaws Unleashed which was clearly what they were going for with a lot of it. Right down to the armored boat final boss. Oh and please more apex battles those are actually genuinely sick.

Well what else can I say besides sometimes you watch Avatar: The Way of Water twice within a week, get hit with James Cameron's autistic love and respect of the ocean, and the next thing you know you're playing Maneater squinting so you can pretend you're Payakan during the climax.

Right off that bat just gonna say never played the mobile game, but I've known about it (and Narmaya) for years. Also been on and off following this specific game since it was announced year ago. Once it was pretty much set in stone with a release date I did kind of stop following news about it so imagine my surprise (positive) when the postgame for this is just Monster Hunter.

No sugarcoating it Relink isn't a really long game (story wise at least). This isn't a 40-50 hour JRPG. There are no real sidequests they're all mostly just fetch quests with items or collectibles you'll find during missions. So if you're one of those "well every dollar should amount to an hour of gameplay" psychopaths this might not be for you on that front.

So lets talk about that story. The story presented here isn't that original, a lot of it is stuff that's been seen before in numerous different Japanese media over the years. Evil church with fervent cult following, Vergil/Nero not a good guy but also not really a bad guy Jack Garland looking edgelord but actually a nice guy type, happy and willing to risk it all to save their friends and the day against all odds MC, main villain lackey's you beat the shit out of before they join in to help you at the end. For all intents and purposes Relink's story should feel tired and boring. It really doesn't have any crazy twists or development. You've seen this all before somewhere, but like a good Godzilla movie that shit don't matter when it's presented in the coolest and funnest ways possible. Granblue Relink luckily does go on to present its story in some of the most incredible ways imaginable. This shit has gacha money poured into it and it really is happy to show it all off. Visually the game is gorgeous. Actual art. That first wide shot of the Grandcypher with the most beautiful clouds I've ever seen in a video game during the title card my jaw fucking dropped. I was floored and the game never stops looking incredible. The painting aesthetic for all the background elements and even some of the characters clothes immediately sets this apart visually from so many other games that have tried this cell shaded style, but never have been able to capture it. BOTW-lite Genshin this is not.

As for how it plays well it's simple. Think a Platinum game's simple but fast paced combos (which they had a hand in for a bit of the dev cycle). However, instead of just 1 character you have 20 different characters that all play their own way and then that massive development cycle starts to make more sense. Everyone's gonna have their favorites and of course my gooner brain went straight to Narmaya, but funnily enough my major mains ended up being her, Zeta and Siegfried. Style switching and timing hits right for max damage feels good bro. There's parts where the game goes full kaiju mode with Bahamut and it becomes a bit of a simple beat em up but the two or so times it happens it's a nice power trip that doesn't overstay its welcome and as a huge fan of various Toku and Kaiju media that is my glup shitto moment in any media.

Through my whole play time I kept thinking: "Man this kind of feels like FF16..." Well while that game quickly fell off from being one of my favorites from last year upon the realization of how fucky the pacing was during my New Game Plus run and also being sick of only playing as Clive. Granblue Relink doesn't fall for those trappings. Instead it delivers a fast and furious, competent, and immensely satisfying 10-12 hour action rpg campaign. An action RPG with multiple characters with their own gameplay styles. Yes please, more of that. Sure you don't get as much time in this to get to know the characters as you would with 10 years worth of game and silly events the gacha has plus the anime and manga and probably something else too, but I think this does a good enough job of endearing you to them as a fun intro. In a way it's very much the game I was hoping Final Fantasy 16 would be! All of this is then topped off with the post game being Monster Hunter style (optional co-op no less!) missions to go in and slay various monsters, fight harder versions of the story bosses, or take on new bosses that weren't even in the story. And they have a roadmap for free upcoming content like recent Monster Hunter games? Hell if this shit gets wild they might hold me off until Wilds releases next year haha.

Really feel that if there's anything I would consider a real negative with this is maybe its length if you just do the story campaign and drop it after that? And the gameplay can get a bit brain dead once you figure out who you want to really use (Charlotta and Narmaya are full on Musou mode). Also, fuck having to grind for gold dahlia badges for the last character ticket. Those three things aside, game rocks and if you truly stick with it you'll get more than those 12 hours, but considering those 12 hours are already an insane banger of a single player game which gets rarer and rarer these days, well I consider that a gift. A PS2 era action game length JRPG. Weird game when you look it at it like that, but I got nearly 100 hours out of it before writing out this review so uh, the game's definitely a full package like Narmaya's tightly stuffed tits.

I'm sure I said this about Dread as well back in 2021, but Metroid Prime may be one of the coolest games ever. It oozes passion and care from devs that obviously gave a shit and honestly to call this just a simple remaster is a disservice. This is a full on remake with new visuals and god does it look good. Some of the most impressive attention to detail I've seen in any game of the past 5 years and it's a remake of a game from 2002. What the fuck are we doing. Real ass tech wizardry going on for this to look as good as it does and run 60fps on the Switch. Especially after 2022 was full of games that really showcased its lack of power. Or maybe mfs are just bad at optimizing their goddamn games. Or a bit of both.

Not touching this in close to 20 years has been EYE OPENING to just how much shit has copied/been inspired by/or just straight up ripped it off since. Xeno'Jiva from Monster Hunter World is legitimately just the Metroid Prime all over again and don't even get me started on how the new Dooms (especially Eternal) are just faster, more linear, meatheaded (complimentary) Metroid Prime games. But man if there is any game I'll always be happy to see inspire others creatively this is definitely one of them.

A genuine classic brought back in one of the best ways possible. Into the hall of GOAT KINO SWAG RAW it goes.

I'm gonna be real, I used to really love this game. Bought it on PS2 as a kid (one of the few games I actually could own and not just rent lmfao), and then played it again when the Ico collection came out on PS3. Replaying it now with this version I hate to say it, but I think I'm kind of over it. Just do not have the patience to deal with these controls anymore and I know the PS3 version was more fucky but I was also like 16 when that version came out.

Game still is a stand out of the medium as genuine art and the unique way to tell a story that only the format of video games ever could. In that regard I can't give it an outright terrible rating cause it's still an important landmark title for that, but man I really don't like playing this now. Maybe another playthrough in a few years will change that, but I'm sticking to this for now.

Also, this is probably Kow Otani's magnum opus. His Gamera and Godzilla scores plus his Gundam Wing OST (the best part of that series) were great but this, lord all mighty I'm boutta bust... I think I love his work for the music more than the game itself now. Get him to do some more video game soundtracks or work on things heavy on action please!

In conclusion... FUCK THIS GAME'S CAMERA

How do I even start to talk about a game that's a remake of something that has actually been with me for nearly 20 years? I may have started the series with REmake on the GC, but I think that after my dumb kid brain was disappointed with RE2 and 3 just being PS1 ports for the Gamecube (I now truly appreciate being able to even play those on GC back then) RE4 shattered my worldview to a degree.

You know how everyone has that one piece of media that they see it and then they go OH MY GOD...THAT'S IT! THAT'S IT!!! THAT'S WHAT I WANT!!! Well for film that was watching Jurassic Park as a tiny little five year old. For video games and perhaps even my taste in horror that was Resident Evil 4 a mere five years later. A nonsensical silly over the top gorefest with a main character that talks back at the villains and they just as much talk shit right back. If anything RE4 to a degree is probably what helped me get into DMC and Tokusatsu as the dynamic between Leon and the Los Illuminados higher ups in this feels very similar to those. Something 2021's Village would push even further into a full on Jojo's Bizarre Adventure type villain squad. Getting back on track, even through all of this Resident Evil 4 kept the atmosphere of a genuine horror experience. The often mocked very brown look of the game indicative of the mid to late 2000s of gaming in this case actually helps permeate that atmosphere of dread and decay that for me personally the only other RE to really capture this is REmake itself.

So yeah, we're going the deeply personal route for this. People may not think the same thing as me about original RE4, but these have always been my feelings on it. It's a dreadful atmosphere of rot that is broken up by the at the time revolutionary combat that completely redefined the third person shooter and to this day every third person game for better or worse imitates it. It is woven into the very DNA of game development. Shinji Mikami may arguably be a shitty terrible writer and can release misses that feel like he was just sleeping on the job, but it can't be overstated the impact original RE4 left. Both him and the dev team involved truly show their craft after years and years of trial and error to get what could arguably be called the ultimate blending of action and horror out on store shelves. Well, with that being said I'm happy to say that despite some minor issues the remake of Resident Evil 4 captures the very spirit of that original game. To such a T it may even be sillier than the original at times.

Holy fuck I can finally hype up this shit cause godfuckingdamn Capcom, holy fuck!!!

Yeah I beat the game like 2 weeks ago, but all this took so long not cause of how long this review is. It's because I legit could not take my hands off the controller and I still think I have a playthrough or two in me before I'm ready to put it down for good.

RE4R may have some annoying bits to it such as the weight and momentum Leon now has, the bullet spread which can be super annoying on an initial play-through as you learn the games mechanics and how to exploit them, ladders no longer having invincibility frames, and hoping to god you don't get hit by an enemies attack while you're getting back up from a particularly strong one mashing the attache case button to open it up and heal. Putting those things aside? The devs somehow managed to make another nearly perfect game after all this time. I would go as far as to say as someone who loves the atmosphere of horror films like the The Witch or Black Mountain Side this game oozes that dread and I honestly prefer the more horror heavy (yet still campy) tone this game goes for. Perfectly reflected no less by its heavy use of cult and folk horror visuals perfectly backed up by the darker and moodier lighting (even during the day!), and those areas with HDR? Lord all mighty there are parts of this that look so fucking real. My 10 year old brain would never be able to comprehend RE4 looking like this. This may be the first game of the current generation where I look at it and actually go "Whoa...". The gore too, good lord the fucking gore. Never ever ever did I think I would get hyped over blowing some old granny in half with a shotgun. Yet here we are! It's the sickest shit. ALSO, I DO NOT CARE IF THE STRAND HAIRS DON'T AESTHETICALLY MATCH OR SLIGHTLY HAMPER PERFORMANCE THE ANIME HAIR STAYS ON PLEASE GOD I HOPE MH6 HAS IT.

But a game's visuals can only be so good. They won't save it if it plays like dogshit. Oh boy, well hustle your buns bitches cause this game plays like a fucking dream. Once you get used to the bullet spread and have learned the games layout and enemy positioning this becomes just as snappy as original RE4. The new quick-switch feature to go from handgun headshot, spinkick some motherfuckers, to shotgunning dudes apart YES FUCK YES THIS IS THE SHIT. I was screaming multiple times. Becoming aware of the fact that this isn't just an action horror game no more, but a full on survival horror shooter where item management matters beyond making space in your attache case was eye opening to how easy it is to turn RE4 into a genuine survival horror game. Every time a big fight left me with just barely enough to scrape by, but having the confidence of knowing you can fight back against the enemies filled me with so much determination to keep going on my initial hardcore difficulty play-through. Which let me just say that "For players who have played Resident Evil 4 (2005)" shit is a goddamn lie! This is a completely different beast that is way harder than that game!

The parry system rocks too. As someone who has gotten real tired of the weapon durability meme that's blown up in a post BOTW world I found this game to handle it really well with all the different kitchen and boot knives you could find, plus the durability is really lenient and once you get the primal knife? Fuggedabout it, you are goddamn Rambo. One of those things I know I'll miss going back to the original game.

Of course you can't talk about RE4 either without mentioning the elephant in the room that is Ashley being a nearly game long escort mi-she's good. As someone who once they figured out the game well as a kid and has done non armored fresh Pro runs, Ashley is so easy to take care of this time around that the real challenge comes more from her being taken than her getting killed by an enemy attack meant for you. Her no longer being attached to the hip and DUCKING while running out of the way of your shots is so good it's one of these things this game does that I know I'll also miss as well going back to the original. So yeah that's been improved by a milestone. You just know they really want you to like her this time around with all the cosmetic gifts you can find for her and how she helps in some fights. Also her interactions with Leon are so cute in this holy fuck she is such a dork sometimes and Leon is such a fucking shonen anime meathead one track mind gaylord I HATE AND LOVE THIS STUPID IDIOT!

Speaking of characters being reworked or made better or that kept their original spirit well. Luis's character expansion as well is awesome, what a bro. Really I think mostly every character has been reworked fantastically, love the new tragic take on Mendez and psychotic demon child projection fueled Salazar. Saddler who takes more of a backseat here compared to the original is such a great hateable motherfucker for anyone (now it's my turn to project!) who hated having to go to church and listen to that shit. When that facade of his finally breaks during the final battle I was cheering I was fist bumping and screaming while failing to avoid his Prometheus black goo attacks. I haven't talked about Ada cause everyone has already said everything and I think after all the dumb bullshit I'd rather not be lumped in with retards just for saying "Yeah her VAs performance wasn't that good." Also I'm waiting for Separate Ways which I think this time around can truly be something special instead of some watered down TPS take on RE4.

So I held back on this for a while cause I knew it would be big and long and almost feel like incoherent fanboy rambling plus the game is fun and hard to put down, but also The Mercenaries Mode wasn't out until a few days ago and it fucking rules. Just so much fun. Loved Raid Mode in the Revelations games sure, but I was extremely disappointed with Village's take on Merc Mode so to see it back to its former glory and be funner than ever has made me extremely happy. I have nothing but good things to say about it. Love to cheese shit as Hunk and I cannot wait for Ada and Wesker to be added.

It's kind of funny that as a sort of strange 2000s nostalgia starts to hit me over the past few weeks after seeing a clip of Elfen Lied making the rounds on the shitty bird app that the RE4 remake releases. A game that captures what my small babby brain's imagination in 2005 imagined the game looking and feeling like. Will RE4R replace the original? No, I think this is a case of the original being such a sacred cow for Capcom that it will always be milked even after this game's release. It's also not revolutionary like original RE4 that straight up changed an entire media landscape. RE4R shouldn't be thought of as a replacement, it should be thought of as a celebration of RE4 and how its mechanics have evolved over the near two decades since its release. It is a truly sublime and alternative take that reminds you of the magic you felt with that original game. RE4R isn't perfect and neither is RE4, both have things that bother me belonging to the era they were made in or choices the developers made, but they are both I would argue equally as strong games. Only RE4 could challenge RE4.

On a final note, as someone who loves films and games equally despite how I may meme about them, something that I've come to really like about this recent string of REmakes is that they feel like the developers are able to bring to life something that truly looks and feels like the James Cameron and George Romero films that inspired RE. Doing that while capturing the blockbusters of their respective era for me personally justifies their existence. RE2 and 3 capture late 90s blockbusters, and now RE4 captures mid 2000s blockbusters. In conclusion that means the only thing left to do is to bring back baggy jeans with chains, open a bag of Doritos 3D, hit play on Meteora and kill some more mutated Spaniards while thinking of simpler times.

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.