Outer Wilds, more than any other before it, is only an experience you could have with a game. To discuss Outer Wilds' story is to discuss your own personal experience with it. The game is the story. Sure, there are texts left behind by ancient aliens and a few snippets of dialogue with fellow explorers, but for the most part Outer Wilds is just you and the universe. A universe spinning like gears in a clock, alive and in motion regardless of how you interact with it. It's terrifying and haunting and beautiful all at once.

Outer Wilds is a triumph. Possibly the most finely crafted experience in gaming. My personal favorite. You owe it to yourself to experience it firsthand.

The word masterpiece gets thrown around a lot with games, but with Kentucky Route Zero that description is apt. The writing is some of the best that gaming has to offer; effortlessly profound, taking you on a journey that never goes where you'd expect and that lingers long after it's over. The world is like a dream, and yet it feels so tangible.

Everything from the story, the characters, the art, and the soundtrack crashes together to point to the game's themes. It's a special thing to behold, a creative at the top of their game like this. For days after the end of the final act I was just in awe of everything I had experienced. There will never again be anything quite like my time on the Zero.

It's really hard to give my full thoughts without making my review all spoilery, so I'll just say this: Abby is one of my favorite characters in recent video games. Her arc is what makes this whole narrative work, turning the story from one that could easily be darkly cynical to something hopeful and even beautiful.

As a whole, I'd say I liked the story of Part II better than the original The Last of Us. It's more challenging, and the characters are generally more nuanced than before. My only issue with it is the pacing. There are just a few too many instances where you have to cross the city to get to yet another landmark on the horizon, rifling your way through buildings in search of loot and taking out large groups of enemies as you go. I think a few of those could have been made shorter or cut entirely to make the game a tighter experience.

My only other gripe is that I felt like there was a lot less tension in the combat encounters compared to the first. Rather than having to manage my bullets and pick up whatever melee items were available to me, I pretty much always had plenty of ammo and the best melee weapons, so I could pretty easily take out groups of enemies without needing much of a plan. I think that's an area where the original game shines, so it was disappointing that it wasn't the case here.

Overall though, these issues mostly pale in comparison to everything else I loved about this game. It's gorgeous, the gameplay is fun, and the story is up there with the best that AAA games have to offer.

On paper, Squadrons sounds like the game for me. I loved the Rogue One VR experience from Battlefront, and have been dying for EA to expand on it since. But after finishing the campaign, playing some missions in VR and some flat, my enthusiasm has waned a bit.

It feels like there was a pretty good story here, but it was flattened and chopped up to fit into the game's mission structure. Battlefront II had the exact same problem, so maybe this is just, unfortunately, Motive's approach to storytelling.

The actual gameplay is... fine, I guess? The missions range from boring to annoying, with a couple of exceptions. Playing in VR was still really cool, but it's a pretty huge downgrade graphically on PSVR, to the point that enemies were often hard to spot at a distance. The ships feel more sluggish and fragile than I would like (playing as the Empire was especially frustrating due to lack of shields) and it felt like a lot of time was wasted orienting my ship towards the current objective.

With all that said, I think I would still recommend this to Star Wars fans. Even if it doesn't hit quite the way I like, there's something special about hopping into an X-wing, especially in VR.