Persona 3 Reload is an absolute success in terms of being a remake. It probably helps that the original game was apparently already excellent, and that two pretty much perfect sequels set the stage for how this series plays in the modern day, but still, it doesn’t demerit the fact that this remake is just a blast to play through and the best way to experience Persona 3 yet.

Everything I love about the Persona series is here, from the jazzy earworm-y tunes to the absolutely mind-boggling interface design, characters to watch grow and evolve, ever-increasing stakes, and a delightful combat experience.

The game overall has an ever-present dissonance with regards to the content and the gameplay experience, which don’t fully mesh. It feels like the content from Persona 3 was just inserted wholesale, warts and all, into the framework of Persona 5. The combat is on that level, the visuals are on that level, the voice acting is on that level, same with quality-of-life updates and several little details that weren’t present, or just worked differently on the original Persona 3, and were improved upon on the sequels. What I refer to as “content” here is the overall story, the pace, the structure, the social links, and the characters, which very much feel from an era before the polish and improvements that Persona 4 and 5 brough upon the original Persona 3 formula.

The overall narrative is very engaging, thematically compelling, and bold, but feels disjointed and the pacing is just all over the place. It has a real slow start, and long stretches of nothing going on. Though it ends up sticking the landing with a beautifully melancholic ending, I can easily see how plenty of people would simply drop the game way before reaching a compelling twist or plot point.

These long stretches of nothing going on in the major narrative are supposed to be filled with activities, social links, events, and combat. In terms of things to do there’s way less here than it the sequels, and once the players stats are maxed out, most of those are basically useless ways to get the game to progress. Events are also lacking, there are less opportunities to do activities with side characters, and so, less opportunities to interact with them and get to know them.

Social Links suffer from this “wholesale insert” approach the most next to the overall story, as Persona 3 clearly was the first time that this time was exploring this concept, and got much better at it in the later games. Characters are very fun and compelling, they each have their own little arcs and evolutions they go through in the company of the protagonist, but each episode is extremely short and minor, and end up having no integration with the main narrative nor any real crossover whatsoever. Once Social Links are completed, these characters may as well be dead, there’s no incentive to interact with them, nor any real opportunity to do so. Sadly, the same thing happens with the romance opportunities, there’s no effect on the narrative, no mention of them outside their respective Social Links, and not even consequences if the player pursues multiple romantic partners like happens on the latter games.

Social Events are a very welcome addition that serve to fix one of the major issues of the original Persona 3, the main side characters having no Social Links at all, and it’s an approach that I would have liked to see applied to the overall game a lot more.

The combat itself is outstanding, and pretty much an exact copy of Persona 5, which I don’t mind at all. Tartarus is the issue. While yes, there are some side objectives to complete, exploring Tartarus gets monotonous and dull pretty damn quick. There could have been way less floors with bigger, more compelling layouts, and more enemies to fight in each of them, maybe even making them a bit more visually distinct could have helped in this regard.

I’m glad I finally played Persona 3, I had a great time with it and remembered why I love the series so damn much. I wish the dev team took a lot more inspiration from Persona 5 and dared to make more profound changes to the original, still, as it stands, it’s a spectacular RPG experience that has little to envy from the newer entries in the series.

I can see why this game is beloved now, it has all the charm and style of the latter Persona’s, with a very 2006 edginess and melancholia that makes it very endearing.

A terrific way to start the year. A wonderful experience overall. I haven’t played many visual novels, but the ones I’ve played weren’t fully animated and voiced like this one is. I’m pretty sure that this isn’t common at all in the genre, and I believe it’s worth trying out for that reason alone. In terms of its presentation, it’s more an interactive animated show rather than a traditional visual novel.

I found the story and characters to be wonderfully written. It really nails the very online sense of humor, but it’s never snarky nor mean. It’s a very heartfelt story, and even though nostalgia, growing up and the end of the world are key themes it’s never a bummer nor does it lean on despair.
In terms of its gameplay, the few rhythm sections are solid and fun to play through, and the decision making feels consequential enough to be consistently engaging.

The soundtrack is on another level altogether. Banger after banger of original soft indie rock songs accompanied by some beautiful background music. The album is already on my Spotify rotation.

I don’t really have much to say about it, it’s a short, very wholesome, very unique, experience that I’m happy to have played through.

This one is right up there with Baldur’s Gate 3 for the top spot of the year. This is easily Remedy’s best game, and their most ambitious one yet, which is saying a lot considering their near perfect, endlessly fascinating, track record. Alan Wake 2 is also, next to Immortality, the most Lynchian game I’ve ever played. There are very clear influences from Twin Peaks the Return, Inland Empire and Lost Highway. It’s a game that purely operates on dream logic and embraces the impossible, something that I very much love to see in a medium where pretty much anything can be done and where games on this scale tend to stick to the overly familiar. All of this is just to state that I loved this game and that it’s pretty much tailor-made for my tastes and interests in art. I’m looking forward to playing the new game plus mode that was recently added, once the DLCs drop and some time has passed.

On a technical level this might very well be the new photoreal graphics ceiling in the medium of videogames. It looks consistently amazing and stylized in just the right places, and it runs pretty much flawlessly on PC. It also achieves some really impressive stuff in regards to changing up the look and layout of levels instantly and the usage of interactable diegetic menus.

The overall story is amazing. Remedy really aimed high here and nailed it. It mixes all of the stuff they’ve toyed with before into an endlessly surprising and engaging experience. It leans heavily into horror, and it succeeds in being a genuinely disturbing game. There are a couple of set pieces that really stand out in terms of quality and novelty, but I believe that it manages to maintain a pretty solid line of excellence all throughout the game. And as expected, awesome original music and impactful sound design. I also absolutely adore the cross referencing of their own games, even when they don't have the rights to them, genius level stuff at play here.

I’m not fully sold on the “free switching between campaigns” concept yet. It’s a cool idea on paper to allow players that freedom, but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter all that much, and it will probably have an impact on the overall pacing of the game for some players. In my case, I didn’t have that issue, as I switched back and forth every couple of chapters, but I can see players going through an entire campaign before switching back and having a weird, unbalanced, experience by the end. I like pacing to be a bit more authored in these cases.

Pacing does suffer a bit if you decide to engage with the collectibles as I did. The game tends to lose momentum if you decide to run back to previously explored areas to check out newly available spots for collectibles and loot. Moving around is quite a slow process and it shows when retreading places that aren’t all that big really. Luckily, puzzles are mostly fun and well implemented, and most collectibles have actual weight, as they are necessary for character and weapon upgrades or just have some fun story tidbits.

The survival horror genre is also present in its approach to combat, which is probably the weakest part of the game. Somehow the Alan Wake games are the only Remedy games where the combat isn’t a standout element. I think the issues here are how the characters control and how the combat encounters are set up in relation to said control of the player character. Alan and Saga are both quite slow to react to players’ input, and animations for everything take a while, which on its own adds to the overall tension of the combat encounters. Shooting feels good, but aiming is not precise and I found it hard to line up at times.

The way the character controls and resources are spread out feels like the game should be approached like an early Resident Evil or Silent Hill game, where most combat should be avoided when possible. The issue is that enemies here tend to swarm the player and approach quite fast. Differently than in Alan Wake 1, dodging is weightier, slower, and harder to time right, which means that when encountering groups of enemies that will run at the player you’ll have a really hard time trying not to die. I ended up overcoming plenty of these encounters by just remembering the order in which enemies would show up to kill me and nuking them before, which kinda kills the pacing of those encounters and sections too.

The traditional survival horror approach to combat isn’t all that feasible neither, as enemies catch up to the player quickly and tend to follow for a long time. Even if you manage to find a safe spot they’ll still be there when you come out.

I died plenty while playing in normal difficulty and checkpoints are pretty spaced out. Another slight issue that affects the pace of the overall experience.

Still, it’s pretty much a perfect game that I loved from beginning to end. I couldn’t be more curious about whatever Remedy is making next.

I think it would be fascinating to see Sam Lake play Max Payne in the new remakes like he played Alex Casey here, it would be such a full circle moment. Remedy, please keep making weird shit just for me.

Yet another utterly fascinating swing from Remedy. A game not without its faults that nevertheless had me hooked from the very start. In terms of setting and worldbuilding it quickly became one of my all-time favorite pieces of media.
In terms of its narrative, it starts as strong as it can be. Control’s first two to three hours are some of the best work Remedy has ever developed. It’s also a game that struggles with pacing. The overall structure has some extremely high highs and some rather meandering in-betweens. Every great element of this game also has a rather dull attachment weighing the experience down.

The last couple of hours are simply spectacular as well. As I rolled credits on Control, I wished that Remedy had attempted a more focused, slightly more linear, approach to the game’s structure and narrative. Something more akin to their previous output would solve 90% of the issues I have with the game.

The games' second act, though continuing to introduce fascinating spaces to explore and weird documents to read, tends to blend together in memory as an amalgamation of fetch-quests that don’t really add up to much in terms of the main plot thread, character or world building. This feeling is only amplified by the gradual ramp up of side quests that distract from this main story path. Some are pretty stellar and memorable, specially the ones that grant Jesse new powers to fight with or dive head-on into the sheer fun absurdity of the supernatural world that Control presents, but most of them are even more forgettable fetch-quests and an endless barrage of procedurally generated time sensitive combat encounters that pop up in random areas of the map every set amount of minutes, flashing the screen in big bold letters, attempting to entice you into dropping whatever more interesting thing you are doing to go there and kill some repetitive waves of enemies for some truly lackluster rewards.

The game has some slight metroidvania influences in its approach to the world design, in a Jedi: Fallen Order kind of way. As you advance in the story, you’ll start unlocking abilities that will grant access to new sections of areas you’ve already explored, pushing the player into going back to those places in order to find new stuff. There are a couple of issues with this approach in Control. In particular, the Oldest House, the supernatural, ever shifting, setting for the game, is a very weird and labyrinthian place, and a pretty hard one to traverse at that. Exploring every nook and cranny for the first time is really fun but going back to places and trying to remember how to get back to somewhere, even with the use of fast travel points, is a real pain in the ass. This and the enemy waves that spawn pretty much anywhere large enough to be a combat arena every time you go through there, makes simple fetch side-quests even more bothersome than they should be in the first place.

Combat is the other aspect of the game I’m quite conflicted about. The gameplay experience is amazing, powers and abilities are really fun to play around with. Remedy really nailed the superhero shooter style. My main issue is with the combat encounters. They are simply not engaging nor fun enough to sustain how many of them you can be involved in. It’s near constant, there’s pretty much just one approach that works consistently and enemy variety isn’t enough to keep them fresh for long. Quantum Break had very few opportunities for combat, Control might have too many for what It’s offering to the player. Midway through the game I was quite over these encounters, even though the gameplay experience itself never stopped being fun.

There’s also a whole upgrades system with stat modifiers for weapons and powers that should have been cut altogether. These XP points and mods are not engaging as exploration rewards, builds don´t feel different from each other when playing, the interface itself is a pain to interact with, it just doesn’t work, and it wasn’t necessary to include here. You cannot engage with this at all and still have the same experience as everyone else playing, because I’m sure most people even forget that the system exists at all.

I have my complaints about the game, and I’m rather passionate about them, but that’s because I love the overall experience so damn much. It works so well for me. This blend of weird sci fi and horror, played straight but with some sense of humor, is very much specifically my thing. I absolutely adore all of the world building, finding these documents, letters and videos. Just the look of the game and its spaces was enough to win me over instantly. The presentation is amazing, the way it uses cutscenes and video like no other game does, the wonderful music and sound design, I could go on for a long time praising every little detail I loved. Remedy, as always, created something even more ambitious and fascinating, and I hope they keep doing just that with their next games for a long while. Just maybe keep it tighter next time, trim the fat a bit.

Great DLCs too, AWE is a must play for any self-respecting Alan Wake fan.

Just some awesome high-concept sci-fi action. Remedy has quickly become one of my all-time favorite studios. The games they make might not always land flawlessly, but they are constantly putting out stuff that feels fresh and high effort. These guys are always doing something outside the box.

Quantum Break really worked for me. My main, and pretty much only, gripe with it is the TV show aspect. It’s such a weird decision, and as I stated these come with the Remedy territory, that doesn´t really work. It simply is extremely less interesting and compelling when compared to the “game” section of this game. It feels and looks like cheap TV, the things that happen in it have no real impact on the game, and the game itself has no real impact on it, even though the game constantly tries to tell you that it actually does. These 4 episodes add up to about an hour of fleshing out very minor characters that barely show up in the game. It doesn't help that these handful of characters are extremely paper thin, and their respective performances are, as I said before, straight out of a cheap TV show.

These episodes are to be endured rather than enjoyed. I also find it extremely bizarre that the game, at least on PC, streams these episodes from some Microsoft server that will one day be inevitably shut down. There’s no option on steam to download these episodes, and if you play offline, you simply aren’t able to watch them. This adds to the idea that these poorly executed, extra-long, live action cutscenes, are just non-essential filler that could simply not be there at all without impacting the overall player experience.

I do believe that the whole “live action interludes that are affected by in-game decisions” concept could work if more budget and care went into it. And if they were actually developed in a way that complements the gameplay sections instead of as an addon that feels more like an afterthought.
At least the game itself, removed from the “TV show”, is a banger. The story is pure dumb fun sci-fi, with just the right amount of science mumbo jumbo, compelling characters, interesting macguffins and awesome set pieces. I didn’t really care for the “decisions” you can take in between acts, but it ties well into the whole time-travel/multiverse concept that the narrative goes for. Overall, great writing, great performances from a well-known cast, pretty much perfect pacing, I had a blast with it.

Graphically it’s a spectacular game. It looks gorgeous and way ahead of its time, especially the facial animations of the main cast. But it’s the overall visual design that really stands out here. Every location feels like a real space instead of a combat arena, populated with little dumb things everywhere to really sell them as real. The whole visual language they developed for the fractures and “time powers” is simply gorgeous looking and adds a lot of punch to the action. Great architecture and lighting too.

The gameplay is so much fun that it’s kind of a pity that combat encounters feel so short and few and far between. It feels as kinetic and engaging to move around and shoot as it did in Max Payne. Some of the powers available here are clear callbacks to the bullet time shooting present in those games. Everything here pushes you to zoom around the arena, evading baddies and just wrecking them. A blast to play through, I just wished there were more combat opportunities in it.

One other very minor gripe. While it is very much improved here, and there’s a little puzzle aspect to it, Remedy should really cool it with the platforming sections. Not their forte.
Great game brought down a peg because of the terrible “TV show” addon. Honestly, I’d say to skip them altogether when playing if the first couple of minutes don’t grab you, because the game is very much worth seeing through.

An improvement on Fallen Order in pretty much every front. It does away with most of the jank that rubbed me wrong in that original game, combat feels tighter and deeper with the fun addition of upgradeable stances, and traversal is made much more engaging from the start as Cal thankfully already has most abilities unlocked by the start of the game this time around.

Maps are larger, but thankfully fast travel is here so as to not make returning to places as a chore as it was before. The overall structure of the game is pretty similar still, though some meatier side content lets you spread out the main story missions and explore the planets a bit more. I’m still uninterested in collectibles here, cosmetics are simply not worth the time investment of solving puzzles and re-exploring areas, but force tears are a welcome addition to the exploration side of the adventure.

Some of the new things added do feel underbaked, especially the perks system. At least while playing in normal, I didn’t need to pay attention to it, and when I did, I was fairly frustrated by the limitations imposed on equipping them.

It still is a pretty standard AAA action adventure game, with big set pieces and an entertaining story that aside from some standout moments wont linger in your mind for long after rolling credits. Still, I really enjoyed that it narratively involves the High Republic era and that it doesn’t just stick to the familiar tropes like Fallen Order did. There are a few surprises, new and interesting characters, and compelling developments to the existing cast. It felt rather fresh in comparison to the major Star Wars media we’ve been getting in the last couple of years.

Performance is pretty solid for most of the game, though it takes a real dip in the last couple of missions. Clearly the team prioritized optimizing the first chapter, which ran nearly flawlessly, to the detriment of the rest of the game. It’s playable, it didn’t affect my experience all that much, but It’s a clear stain on a pretty damn solid game that I hope the devs fix up.

A “just ok” addition to the Remedy canon. Only really worth playing if you really like how Alan Wake handled combat encounters or you are trying to play everything Remedy has made. It’s pretty cheap and short to get through.

Personaly there are very few things here that I found compelling. The story isn’t nearly as interesting as in Alan Wake. The overall presentation isn’t nearly as interesting. Mr. Scratch is a fun character, and I always dig the live action cutscenes, but in terms of the overarching Alan Wake story this adds pretty much nothing.

I’m not sure why they decided on the looping structure, but it was a mistake. It’s simply a very repetitive experience, with not much pushing the player to get through it other than the combat encounters if you appreciate those more than I do. They added new enemies which is welcome, but man, I still do not like Alan Wake as a shooter.

I get why this one wasn’t added to the remaster.

An utterly fascinating game. It both feels kinda gross and upsetting to play, but I just couldn’t stop playing it. Extremely satisfying in terms of gameplay, it’s easy to see how GTA V’s gunplay is just a watered-down version of what Rockstar achieved here. Shooting people in the face is as fun as it was in the Remedy Max Payne, only here I end up feeling kinda bad and a bit grossed out when the final bullet of the level is shown splitting someone’s head open in slow motion. Maybe only this and The Last of Us Part 2 have managed to make me feel both extremely satisfied and completely repulsed when finally killing everyone who stood in my way.

In terms of narrative, it quickly separates itself from the two previous entries by being extremely self-serious but without an inch of goofyness nor self-mockery. Max Payne 3 is pure, unadulterated hard-boiled stuff. There are glimpses of satire, but this isn’t GTA, this is mostly the real world we live in, and it’s presented as such at all times. While it’s treatment of poverty, gang violence, south America and specifically Brazil leave plenty to be desired, I really liked the way Max’s character is developed throughout, especially his relationship with alcohol. Surprisingly nuanced for a series and a game that normally lacks nuance. The rest of the cast is compelling when they show up but mostly rather forgettable after. There’s no Mona Sax here, no Jack Lupino, no Lt. Bravura, instead we get the Branco family, people whom I would have gladly shot in the face if given the opportunity to do so.

The way the story is presented is what truly grabbed me. A mix of fully animated cutscenes and Max’s inner monologue during gameplay replace the graphic novel panels I so much loved. Still, even though I can admit that the game contains way too many cutscenes, interrupting gameplay incessantly, these cutscenes are simply a delight to watch. They ooze style at all times. Rockstar’s signature handheld camera cinematography is present here, but it’s the heavy use of filters, transitions and split frames that won over my heart. I wish more games would approach cutscenes this way.
I need to make a special mention here. The soundtrack is impeccable. It’s hard to follow up such iconic soundtracks but HEALTH absolutely nailed it. I’m pretty sure I like it even more than the one present in Max’s previous outings. Especially the credits song, the one that plays in the airport sequence, what a wonderful piece of music. It’s a mix of thumping electronic sounds, synths, industrial banging, all of what made the Max Payne soundscape special brought to new life.

Even though the game insists on portraying Sao Pablo as either gross and poor or shiny and new, I must say that it’s an incredibly detailed portrayal of these spaces. Maybe it’s because the levels are focused and linear, but I was truly surprised by how much stuff populates these places and how much of the detail they got right.

A really solid action horror game, though a very confused one at that. Alan Wake doesn´t really know what it wants to be. As a horror game it mostly succeeds. Its atmosphere, tension, and writing are its best parts. As an action game it’s a mess.
I like the mechanic of having to light up enemies to break down their defenses before being able to shoot them. It adds an engaging layer to resource management and forces the player to pay more attention in combat scenarios. Sadly, there’s a particular focus on dodging incoming attacks that isn’t really supported by the way the player character moves and reacts. Incoming attacks tend to come from offscreen, and there’s no way to know if something is coming in order to properly dodge it. The physics engine seems to be tuned to favor ‘realistic’ and mostly clunky movement, so controlling Alan isn’t nearly as precise as it should be to support this approach to combat. And Remedy still doesn't know how to do engaging platforming.

Another issue with Alan’s controls comes with his slow walking and running speed. During plenty of sections this isn’t an issue at all, but there’s plenty of very open areas that could have interesting rewards for exploring them further if only it wasn’t such a slow pain in the ass to do so. It’s clear that these areas were built for a different style of exploration, and that feeling only adds to the overall sense of confused identity that this game carries throughout. Most of these open areas have nothing in them, not even the quite crappy collectibles that are occasionally spread around. A couple of hours in I just decided to follow the minimap at all times. A minimap that wouldn’t be there if not for these really confusing and annoying to traverse through open areas.

I love the story being told here, and the way it’s being told. It’s a fascinating mix of Lynch and King, with fun characters, moody sequences, and a killer soundtrack. It plays with structure in a way more games should try, but the pacing is completely off for plenty of its ‘episodes’. The combat sequences are mostly to blame for this. Cool set pieces overall, but its unwieldly nature, poor difficulty balancing, and repetitive encounters make these a slog to get through pretty damn fast for a game so hard-headedly focused on action. I can only imagine what this game could have been if not for a clearly very messy production and confused objectives.

The Remastered version looks very pretty on PC. It does have some constant bugs related to lighting though, which get to be very annoying at times. It doesn't make the game unplayable, but it's annoying and doesn't do the experience any favors. The two DLCs aren't anything to write home about, just more of the same in a smaller package. Still, enjoyable for what they are and what they add to the overall narrative.

I can’t really say if it’s a better or a worse game than the original Max Payne. What I can say is that it’s a much more ambitious game. Remedy really put absolutely everything they had into the making of this game, and it always shows.

I think the story lacks a certain charm that comes with simplicity by trying to be a more convoluted, non-linear narrative, but the ambiance is still there, untouched. This one might be even grittier and more hopeless than the first game. Violence no longer has the murky justification of vengeance behind it, it’s just violence for violence’s sake. Max is still stylish and cool as hell to play ass, and Mona shines in her own way. Villains no longer have the personal involvement with Max’s goal of revenge as they did in the first game, so they feel a bit more anonymous here. Killing them isn’t personal anymore, they are just kind of in the way. The relationship with Mona is what drives the story forward, the rest of the plot is slightly unmemorable. Though dialogue is still as perfectly overwritten as ever.

The graphical upgrade seems to be where most of the money went. A truly impressive jump for a two-year gap between games. Really detailed and populated levels, a new physics system, and a surprising preference for in game cutscenes over the constant graphic novel panels from the first game, though I did end up missing them for a bit.

Platforming still isn’t good, but it works better here thanks to those upgrades mentioned before. And the shooting experience, while slightly different than in Max Payne 1, is still as delightful and engaging as ever. There’s a lesser reliance on dodging and jumping when enabling Bullet Time, which makes for an overall easier gameplay experience and took a bit of time to get used to. This kind of detail is what I mean when I say I can’t really pick which one is a better game, or which one I enjoyed the most, there are some subtle differences that make one approach gameplay in slightly different ways, while maintaining the same pretty much perfect core.

A real grimy delight that I beat in a day!

Awesome game that has mostly aged like fine wine. Platforming isn’t its strongest suit, and there was a certain jankyness, especially with the camera and npcs getting slightly stuck in some sequences, but overall, the PC port presented no issues whatsoever.

Everything else is working at the highest level possible for a 2001 third person shooter. The story is a delight. A brooding, extremely serious but not afraid to get goofy and weird, noir. Consistently engaging, as edgy as it needs to be, a masterclass in establishing and maintaining tone and atmosphere. I love the graphic novel narrative device too. Max is just an awesome character to play as. The more I read into the game and its layers the more I like what it’s going for.

The gameplay loop is extremely satisfying and addictive. Shotting as Max Payne is simply too much fun. Bullet time is such a compelling mechanic, kinda surprising I haven’t played more shooters that attempt this kind of thing. Superhot is the one that comes to mind right now. Every encounter is kind of a puzzle as well.

Wonderful level design and sense of place. Spectacular worldbuilding and a musical score I’ll remember fondly.

Really solid action-adventure game, brought down by an overall roughness around its edges and lack of compelling innovation in combat, traversal, and storytelling. A slightly derivative amalgamation of what other games in the genre have done better, in a fun Star Wars package.

The story is fun and surprisingly engaging on a replay, but it feels overly familiar and tropey. Characters are well designed but lack proper development and opportunities to interact with them. Cutscenes are spectacular, they look great and are very well animated, outside of them character animation tends to be rather stiff looking and inorganic.

The story has some great moments, spectacular set pieces, and it’s overall pretty well paced. Doesn’t overstay its welcome and has a few surprises sprinkled about. A great Star Wars adventure that can’t fully shake off a feeling of familiarity and predictability.

Traversal gets more engaging as the game goes along and the player starts unlocking new abilities, but it doesn’t ever come close to being as engaging and polished as what Naughty Dog perfected in Uncharted 4. I’ve never been a big fan of this style of platforming, and while double jumping is fun enough, it still hasn’t won me over.

Combat is where the game struggles the most. When it works properly it’s an extremely engaging attempt at bringing Souls-like combat to a mainstream audience, with the addition of unlockable combos and cool force powers. Sadly, it lacks the polish and exactitude that From Software tends to bring to their games, specially around collisions and character animations. There are plenty of combat encounters that are just annoying to get through in any of the very welcome difficulty levels because of this reason. It feels like with some more time in the oven this could have been fixed, as the bones of the system seem really solid and fun to play.

Easily the best Star Wars game in a long time. A solid foundation that I hope the sequels build upon.

A solid near-three-hour Resident Evil experience, that fleshes out Village’s ending and manages to breathe new life to some of that game’s most iconic locations. The third person perspective implementation is a bit janky, especially considering how smooth playing the Resident Evil 4 remake is, but it’s serviceable and never presented major issues other than the combat being a bit sluggish.

It's story heavy, and it’s a really fun one, with some new and returning characters. It’s also fairly scary and creepy, not as visceral as Village was, but close enough. A worthwhile addition to the game and the franchise.

A near perfect update of the original Resident Evil 4, and I must say I enjoyed playing this one a bit more. It looks gorgeous, runs flawlessly, and the narrative is more compelling here. It retains some of the weirdness of the original while making it a fresh and more cohesive gameplay experience.

While combat is really fun, I was left missing a true dodge option for controlling Leon. Quick movement and trying to escape close encounter combat got too janky at times without an option that wasn’t context sensitive. This and some pretty hard difficulty spikes in Normal difficulty (which involve having to care for Ashley, though her improved AI makes her an enjoyable companion this time around) are my only gripes with the game.

I very much enjoyed the twists added in there for returning players of the original, and the overall expansion of character moments and stories. The side objectives that are scattered throughout the game are solid enough to offer more game-time for players looking to stretch their campaigns, or gather more resources in higher difficulties, but stay non-essential and unintrusive for the players who would rather mainline the story.

Best Resident Evil release since RE2 Remake.

Instantly became one of my favorite games of all time. Easily the best release of 2023, and clearly the best gaming experience I’ve had in a while. A balanced mix of everything I love out of RPG storytelling and immersive sim, sandbox-y mechanics. It feels like a game specially made for me.

It also helps that I love fantasy and have been playing plenty of DnD for a while now. It makes terrific use of the Faerûn setting, and it’s wonderful to toy around with what are mostly one-to-one translations of the 5e mechanics as a player instead of a DM.

It’s an outstanding experience from start to finish. The writing and performances by the voice cast are impeccable, combat and exploration allow for an enormous amount of player freedom, the world is reactive and alive in a way that feels truly rewarding to explore every single nook and cranny.

There are some technical polish issues towards the end of the game, some that have been fixed already and some others that will be fixed in the coming weeks. I mostly no-lifed this playthrough since release, it took me longer than it took me to finish all three Mass Effect games in the Legendary Edition, and encountered 0 game breaking bugs, just a couple minor ones and some performance dips later on.

It’s a game I already want to return to roll a new character and have several ideas on how to approach it in several different ways in order to experience new stories, and I’m sure I won’t be the only one. I’ll wait a bit for now, until they update some stuff, so as to not burn out early. But I wholeheartedly encourage anyone even remotely interested in it to try it out, and there’s no time like the present.