At the top of a seemingly ordinary mountain in Pokemon Silver you find a familiar figure. A few dozen or so hours before, you shrugged off the finality of the Pokemon League and indulged your motivation to continue exploring a virtual world that seemed endless to you, crossing a small unassuming river to find yourself setting foot in a whole new continent with more Gyms to conquer and new Pokemon to discover. Shocked and ecstatic to find out you knew this new world like the back of your hand, you return to an older game affected by the passage of time and your previous presence in it. Having exhausted both Johto and Kanto, you proceed past the bounds of its world and up the summit of a seemingly ordinary mountain where you find a familiar figure. To anyone who lived through that experience during their childhood and stood in front of a mute Trainer Red that threw a lvl 81 Pikachu at them, you know that at that very moment that was as good as videogames were gonna get.

And in some sense, that has always been true to me. Despite losing interest in the franchise over the years, Pokemon occupies a special place in my heart as it was the first video game I truly surrendered myself to, at a time where the magic and enigma of video games weren't lost to me and the reward of exploration and experimentation weren't bogged down by hindering familiarity with game design, and while Pokemon is now bigger than it's ever been, it has never again been able to recapture the same mania of the late 90s I was fortunate to have witnessed. Excuse me while I step away from my unbiased persona for a sec to tell you that if you didn't play Pokemon in a pre-internet age, where secrets and rumours were exchanged word of mouth by snot nosed lying kids, doing battles and trades meant having to deal with the annoying neighbour rich bully that had the one link cable, and where the game extented past the screen into a shared cult of watching the tv show, collecting the trading cards and buying the toys, then the Pokemon experience is no longer accessible to you because you simply. weren't. there.

Anyways, Arceus is none of that. Understandably and rightfully so, it doesn't try to remake the unremakeable but instead demonstrates to be the most effort Game Freak has put into the series in 20+ years of stagnation, being the closest Pokemon has ever gotten to creating the fantasy sequel me and many others envisioned all those years ago while being transfixed by a Game Boy and a small cartridge. It sounds shallow on paper, but it's astounding how drastically being able to see the critters moving around in the distance in full 3D changes the entire series. Reducing the scope beyond the simplicity of Gen 1, Arceus removes the towns, gyms, trainer battles and traditional progression of the main series to focus exclusively on the core experience of "catching them all", and while that ends up being a bare bones gameplay loop, it sustains its appeal through free form BOTW like set of landscapes that present the Pokemon as wild dangerous beasts to be carefully observed and approached and that give brief glimpses of the kind of excitement for exploration encountered in those old games of yore.

Does Arceus get a pass, that its contemporaries wouldnt benefit from, just for being Pokemon? Yeah. Catching one Pokemon means you have essentially catched them all, as they all share the same behaviors, movements and animations while stumbling about their primitive AI, battles are included in a meandering compromise of broken and mindless combat with little strategy and bond between your team, and the lack of interaction between the Pokemon and the environments they inhabit relegate the few and far between moments of personality and characterization to the quests and cutscenes. But goddammit, I'm human too, and I would be lying if I said I didn't get a sense of eager satisfaction everytime I watched that pokeball jump around into a sucessful catch. It's not the dream Pokemon game we have learned to forget over the decades, it will probably take another 20+ years to get there. But it's an evolution, and that has to mean something in the case of Pokemon.

join the two biggest fucking idiots in the world as they somehow manage to botch each worst-case-scenario they land themselves in about ten times harder than the last. the liveleak logo never goes away on this ride

yeah yeah shaky cam artifacting hard to see motion sickness; whatever. once the initial shock wears off from the hilariously grim - and frankly very well executed - snuff/found footage aesthetic this is a damn fine albeit incredibly short tps with cool set pieces and satisfying gunplay

What a Pokémon sequel?! Pokémon doesn't do sequels, they do third versions!? young me said, what a novel concept what new content shall be In this!? young me, yet to learn that there Is actually quite a bit of new content all of It pretty fun, some gym leaders that I think to this day are the best of there type, and the sequel nature of this game you get to see some classic characters grow In interesting ways, though thought this game has the problem of "to many legendary syndrome" Pokémon games following will have also, now I must be honest, out of all the Pokémon games, this Is the one I've played the least, why you may ask? Because I lost my cartage and haven't bought a new one, whoops :3c but from what I played It was fun and had a good time with It and think It really breaks from the Pokémon "wait a year and they'll be a better version" trend Pokémon have had for awhile, though think this will cause a trend In Pokémon trying to recapture this effect In the future and... failing but well get to that when we get to that :3

Game Freak has never exactly been shy about releasing the same game multiple times, whether it be remakes, ports, definitive editions, or just the dual versions that are customarily developed for every generation. For the first four sets of games, the Pokemon series established a general formula; release the main game in pairs, then release a "definitive edition" third version one to two years later. Differences between the three overall games are generally minor for the first three gens, and while some improvements-namely Emerald's- are noticeable, none of them ever invalidated the previous two. None of them, that is, until Pokemon Platinum.

Generation 4 made a lot of good alterations to the Pokemon formula, such as the return of the real-time clock and physical/special being based on moves instead of types. It also brought the Underground, which remains the most interactive and interesting non-combative multiplayer experience in the main series' history. Sinnoh in general is also a pretty well-balanced region, and one of the most memorable in the franchise. However, the original Gen 4 games were also painfully slow. It felt like doing everything took much longer than it had to, and in a game that can last well over 30 hours, that waiting time adds up and gets noticed much more easily. Platinum removes many of these issues, making for a much more evenly-paced game that makes its predecessors feel nearly irrelevant. Playing this game and trying to return to DP is an exercise in futility, and because of that, Platinum becomes the first "third" game that addresses the faults of the games it was based on and drastically improves on them.

That's not to say that Diamond & Pearl didn't leave a good foundation; the game is still one of the best looking in the series, nailing the calm and serene aesthetic that purveys throughout the Sinnoh region. Sinnoh also is probably the region with the most personality; the somewhat muted colors blend well with an area steeped in mythology and ancient mysticism. The music doesn't contain as many memorable jams as previous titles, instead opting for a mostly calm and peaceful tone. All of these things make for a surprisingly subtle game, in a series that isn't exactly known for subtlety. Platinum also adds some much appreciated extra areas, such as the Distortion World and the Battle Frontier, which both serve to enhance the game's story and end game. The story itself is decent by Pokemon standards, and there's plenty of lore in Platinum that adds to its mystique.

Of course, this is a mainline Pokemon game, so it's not exactly revolutionary, either. The base gameplay is more or less the same as it's been since Pokemon's debut, which is admittedly generally fun. Still, while the battle system has its intricacies, an overwhelming majority of battles pose no threat to the player, and are decided before they even start. Therefore, the game can often feel like its just going through the motions before reaching the next gym, rival, or team battle. As with most Pokemon games, gameplay variety is at a premium. Gen 4's roster is a bit of a hit and miss as well. A lot of less popular Pokemon from previous generations got some much needed final evolutions here, and it gave a lot of them a new identity and fanbase. On the other hand, Pokemon type and species diversity is pretty unbalanced; Sinnoh has one of the worst regional PokeDex's in the series, and it really shows in repeat playthroughs. There's a reason why memes mocking the diversity of Pokemon teams in the Sinnoh region feel so accurate, and it's because of how poorly Pokemon are distributed in the region. Most of the interesting evolutions or new additions are locked behind trades or only appear in the late game, and that all serves to add another layer of repetitiveness to an already repetitive series. And while it fixes a lot of the problems that made Diamond and Pearl feel so tedious, Platinum is still on the slower side of the Pokemon games, and there are times when its pacing feels frustrating.

Differentiating Pokemon games is difficult, because at the end of the day catching and battling Pokemon takes up a large portion of the game, and the gameplay surrounding those activities hasn't changed much since its inception. However, Platinum succeeds where other Pokemon games haven't in establishing its own personality, its own feeling. Many players remember Platinum fondly, and it still remains the best way to experience the Sinnoh region. Platinum was the last of the "third" titles to be released for Pokemon, and in a way, the last Pokemon game where players could definitively say they were playing the generation the way the developers envisioned it. And for all that's worth, Platinum turned a mediocre Pokemon game into a great one, and one of the best in the series.

Death Stranding is possibly the best video game ever made. It certainly has impressed, exhilarated, and stayed with me more than any other game before or since.

Death Stranding has completely reinvented social interaction in games. Although Death Stranding is a single-player campaign, it necessitates a connection to the internet. It is here that Kojima's purpose begins to take shape; the theme of "we are stronger when connected" bleeds into every aspect of gameplay. As Sam reconnects the chiral network and puts America back online, portions of the map connect to the grid. This means that the player can build structures like generators, rain shelters, player homes, zip lines, bridges, roads, etc using a PCC kit to 3D print structures out in the world. Once another player connects that same area to the grid in their own game, there's a chance that your structure will appear in their world, and vice versa.

You can also collect lost cargo from other people's games and request deliveries from other players. Once, I desperately needed a floating carrier but didn't have the resources. I estimated I'd arrive at the Distro Center West of Lake Knot City in about 30 minutes, so I requested that someone deliver a floating carrier. Lo and behold, it was waiting for me when I arrived! I felt loved at that moment; some stranger had put aside what they were doing and spent 30 minutes of their time bringing me this carrier for no reward or recognition.

Each structure has the name of the player floating above it, and you can "Like" other players' structures if they helped you. I cannot begin to count the number of times other players' structures saved my life. BTs are chasing me - I come upon a shelter. BB is crying, and my exoskeleton is sputtering out - there's a generator. My boots have worn out, and the MULEs are charging at me - but someone has left a motorcycle at the edge of the road for me. A ladder to cross a chasm, a belaying hook to scale a cliff, all left by strangers for strangers.

I felt truly connected to everyone else playing Death Stranding because everything I did had real-world implications. These were real people out there, with real goals and real aspirations. This infinite loop of everyone in the world delivering packages to each other, Liking each other's structures, and positively affirming each other was beautiful. If we all give, no one is left wanting.