It's one of those games where you can tell the director was grinning from ear to ear the entire time while making it and watching the reception. I can imagine Kojima just sitting there being able to present this deep, philosophical story about what being a soldier means and about how deep loyalty goes while being able to use the backdrop of the Cold War, emulating American cinema with secret agents and femme fatales. It really is an all time great that I have a few gripes with (the stealth is way too unforgiving while at the same time Naked Snake is way too tanky too easily reset encounters) such a great experience overall. Such an incredible prequel, such an incredible narrative.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is a game I wanted to enjoy since the first announcement but I had always been cautious about getting excited about it after the disappointment that was Borderlands 3. I was very pleased with this game, it felt like a major improvement over the previous outing (even if it is a "different" IP).
The maps were much better designed with the more linear levels being reduced to much shorter outings only towards the end of the game. I also think this game is much better written than 3 and all the celebrity actors sounded like they were having a blast delivering these lines. Tt makes a lot of smart improvements I would like to see carried out back in the next Borderlands installment. Having a dedicated melee slot makes loot drops even more exciting and allows your kit to be fleshed out even further as well as with the addition of being able to multiclass. I would like to see something similar to that system brought back to Borderlands because it allows for a much more diverse path for building out characters and actually makes me excited to run the game back in the upcoming years. Spells were an awesome addition and I would like to an option as diverse (more than just the standard grenade) in the mainline series as well. Seeing your player model change as you level up was also a really cool touch I didn't expect and being allowed to erect statues of yourself and party around town gave a better sense of progression than any other Borderlands game.
Complaints wise- this game is way too easy, even with 4 players the challenge run dungeons required very little thought (we hadn't reached max chaos level however so maybe it does get harder) but even without those the campaign bosses took no longer than 45 seconds for us to clear. The player is also given less freedom on how to spend their hard earned gold in this spin-off, while the past installments had slot machines and customization options, all of that has been reduced to just ammo capacity and backpack expansions as well as buying new guns out of vending machines. This made returning to the "hub" way less exciting. I have also heard that the DLC for this game is very poor and overpriced, I have not yet purchased it and cannot comment on that (but I would definitely believe it).

TLDR: Fun entry and more optimistic for where the franchise goes from here than I was previously.

A game I've been meaning to get around to since I bought my ps3 in 2019, finally got around to beating it on my PS5. I understand the appeal, the characters are endearing and super well acted. The artistic vision of this game still holds up 8 years later, as does the music; so its pretty sound on a technical level. Beyond that you have a pretty standard zombie story though paired with pretty dull gameplay most the time. Melee combat feels like it only works about half the time making most encounters really frustrating when the point of the game is to use as little resources as possible per encounter! The A.I. is not good, enemies feel like the switch targets for no reason other than to screw over the player and companion A.I. makes stealth sections feel completely fake. Glad I played, glad to see it getting adapted into a format that should improve it next year.

It's like the antithesis of what I like about video games. I have no idea at how this was trying to be a sequel to The Last of Us, if anything it feels like it should be the conclusion of a trilogy. Maybe that's what they were going for seeing as this game is nearly double the length of the 2013 title and at no point do they try to evolve the gameplay during that run time, it becomes super stale. The game, however, can be praised on a technical level. It looks and sounds great! However, the choice to remain in Seattle really makes it all kind of mesh together in a way that doesn't happen in the first game. But the level design within Seattle is great, and they correctly chose to not have both "protagonists" revisit the same parts of locations in both campaigns. Ultimately, its the narrative which makes me not like this game, besides being way to long, many of the moments that the game wants to shock you with, make you feel uneasy with, just does not work for me. I think most of that comes from the really weird structure of the narrative, the game wants you to develop feelings for character whose fates you've already determined and it just does not work. It's not something that can happen in the first 15 hours of a game that isn't even focused on these characters. I do not care about Dina. I do not care about Jessie. I do not care about Mel. I do not care about Owen. On top of that even 3/4ths of the way into the game you're still being served flashbacks, killing the pacing of a game already moving at a snail's pace. There is just very little substance within the narrative and that little substance is so bashed into the players brain that it makes it aggravating each time they try to create more similarities between the two main characters. The best scene happens quite early in the game (the museum flashback), and it shows exactly what this game is missing, what made the first game so cherished.

On one hand, I have never played a game like Deathloop, a title that asks you to, in one span of a day (divided into 4 sections), eliminate 8 targets that all have their own schedule and motives. On the other hand I've played every "Deathloop", I've played Hitman and Dishonored (arguably the two biggest inspiration for this title) as well as games like Metroid, The Outer Wilds, and Dark Souls, all of which has heavy roots in this game. Deathloop some how masterly combines these 5 games and then some to make a game that truly feels unique despite the influence. Developer Arkane Lyon has truly showed that creativity is left in the games industry and shows they know how to evolve. Taking the Dishonored formula they improve the combat in simple ways, such as adding a dedicated kick button which can save you from having one bullet screw up your entire plan of attack for a mission. It simultaneously is their only title that feels truly balanced for both stealth as well as a "guns blazing" approach, paired with Arkane's excellent level and world design and you have one of the most fun, immersive games ever created. On top of that is some of the most brilliant art direction I have seen in a game, where these messages appear to you and even you as Colt, the main character, questions why you can see them but as you progress you realize that you left those messages for yourself, to help guide you and keep you on the straight and narrow. The voice actors for Colt and Julianna (who are arguably the two protagonists) also show great chemistry and every time they have a dialogue together its always a treat.

Some gripes I do have with this game is the lack of trust the developers seemed to have with the players. Once you solve each "quest" for the visionaries (the 8 targets Colt must kill to break the time loop he's stuck in) the game straight up tells you the correct order of execution for the targets, this was a major slap in the face. This game is best expierenced with quest markers turned off and that last "quest" truly proves why. I also had to manually close the game 3 times (on PlayStation 5) due to bugs that prevented me from closing the game. This is an issue because there's is no saving in levels as to prevent any kind of "save scumming", which led me to have to restart that portion of the day.

Overall, I wouldn't say its a game for everyone. There is a lot of repeating the same tasks and visiting the same areas to learn more about the world as well as the eight visionaries. However, Arkane Lyon has something special on their hands that everyone should try, even if that does mean waiting for an eventual sale.