This was a good experience!
The world is super dreary and atmospheric. The game definitely won't scare you - but it has that classic spooky old New England feel to it and they did a great job capturing that. The concept here is also extremely unique and memorable, with two memorable leads to complement it. I loved the dynamic between the two and how you could seamlessly switch between the two of them in combat (which was also solid). Lots of cool ghostly moments along the way.
My main issue here is actually the story. And don't get me wrong, it's a good story in concept. In execution, while there are some strong emotional beats, the pacing could be a LOT better. There were times where I felt like it was dragging. It's a story that could have been told in about half the time. And as you advance towards New Eden Town, you're faced with a bunch of haunting cases along the way. Obviously, with things like that, some are going to be a lot more interesting than others. Essentially, I liked the main beats the story hit, I just wish some of the fat in between was trimmed a little more.
Overall, this was a game I was SUPER excited for, and I'm happy that it was a good game. I don't think it was quite the level I thought it could be, but it's definitely good enough to recommend!

I think a lot of people went in to this game having decided they already hated it before actually playing. That said, there are also a lot of people on the other side of that, which is where I fall.
The characters and setting are really great here. It was absolutely awesome to see members of the Justice League (and other DC characters), as well as Metropolis, in a AAA setting like this. Additionally, the story is rock solid. It's not the greatest story ever told in gaming or anything, but it's genuinely really enjoyable and well-paced. Also thought the combat and traversal both played very well.
My two main gripes. One - I wish the side content was a little more fleshed out. There's not much variety at all in the gameplay of the missions, and there's not anything rewarding narratively, just upgrades for your character. And having to kill enemies using a certain mechanic can sometimes be annoying depending on which one it is. Two - that Superman fight was way too underwhelming considering, well, it's Superman. The Batman and Lantern encounters were the highlights for me.
Overall, I felt like I was one of the only people who was genuinely excited for this game for all of this time, and I'm glad it ended up being good!

It's cool that the pals can be used for many different things, but that's the only reason I gave it a star.
The game is creatively bankrupt. Everything it has, from the gameplay to the creature design, is ripped off. I think if you're gonna rip off Pokemon, you should lean in to it more and give me SOMETHING of substance. It just felt like the parody could have been a lot stronger.
The biggest sin this game commits is it's just boring as hell. These kind of games generally aren't for me anyway, and I was hoping for this to be an exception, but it just wasn't.
It's only January but if I play anything I like less this year, I'm gonna be sad. This is without question one of the laziest and comically bad games I've ever played. I can see why it might work for some people, but this is not my thing at all

Holy shit dude.

Hard to figure out where to really begin with this one. It was a lot of firsts for me - first CRPG, first experience with Baldur's Gate and hell, first experience with D&D in general aside from the fantastic D&D movie earlier in the year.
I was worried about how I'd respond to the combat. And while it was a bit of a struggle at first, I really came to love it. While I love a good visually satisfying button mash session, I also loved the super strategic nature of this combat. Strategizing how to play to your party's strengths and what spells to add to the mix was a lot of fun for me.
But that's not what makes this game incredible for me. First, the setting. All 3 acts had outstanding, and most importantly, distinct from one another settings. All of them are visually striking and packed with cool cutscenes. It felt like 3 phenomenal games combined in to one. Plot threads that you start in the first act come all the way back dozens of hours later in the final act, from the most minute of encounters to, of course, significant plot threads.
Which leads me to my next point, the main story here is truly excellent and compelling. But the side content is also phenomenal. There are some very charming and fun one-off encounters, but it's the members of your party that shine through. I have only played a couple of games in my entire life that have a cast that resonated with me as well as these guys did. All of the characters are incredibly complex (and tragic for that matter), and I genuinely cared about securing the best outcome for all of them. Each of their plot threads felt like its own epic inside of a story that is an epic on its own. And they are all voice acted to utter perfection.
Finally: YOUR. CHOICES. MATTER. There are very few, if any, games that I have played where I felt I could impact the world around me more than this one. This gives it SO much more replay value than most single player games, because I feel as if there's practically an entirely different story waiting for me if I choose to do an evil playthrough. This just further engulfs you in to the roleplaying of it all.
This one was kind of an essay LOL but man, I am blown away by this. I won't ever forget this band of would-be mind flayers and this incredible world, along with the paths I took to forge it in to what it became

I like a lot of what this game offered. The story wasn't anything super special, but it did start to ramp up towards the end. And I did enjoy a couple of the characters a solid amount!
Where this game really shines though is in Pandora itself. The world is downright stunning and filled with life. There were so many "wow" moments, and pretty much all of them had to do with an awesome visual reveal in Pandora, accompanied by some good music.
Unfortunately, this game is tanked pretty hard by the gameplay for me. It literally has no fuckin idea what the definition of "easy mode" is, and the combat is just too poor to justify being this hard. It sucked a lot of the actual fun out of the game for me, especially in the last couple of missions, where I died constantly. In fact, as I write this, I'm towards the end of the very last mission and I genuinely don't know if I'm actually going to be able to beat this game. Even if I do, the damage is done.
It's a shame because honestly this game had a really good shot at being in my top 10 this year. It really has a lot going for it. Unfortunately it's just too frustrating for me, and that just is not what I want in a game

I actually wasn't planning to play this, so shout out to my buddy for letting me borrow it for a few days because I'm glad I got to give it a go.
While it is ultimately still just a side scrolling platformer, it's a good one. A good deal of creativity went in to it, although it still felt very familiar. Levels definitely varied in terms of fun factor (though the majority were definitely enjoyable), and the boss encounters were incredibly underwhelming.
The coolest thing here is how the Wonder Flowers impact each individual level in a different way. They clearly put a ton of thought in to it. But aside from that, it still felt like every good 2D platformer ever, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if you're really in to the genre. But for me, these kind of games are generally a fun playthrough, but nothing super memorable or mind-blowing, and this falls perfectly in to that category

Overall, I'd say this is a very good game.

The combat is a welcome improvement of the first game. I still wouldn't say it's GOOD necessarily, but it's definitely not bad. The atmosphere in this game is also truly stunning - so many awesome set pieces and just genuinely sick visuals. This an extremely effective survival horror environment, it's legit stunning and downright creepy. But, obviously, the shining star here is the story and characters. The characters just have so much, well, CHARACTER. They're all very interesting and complex, and that comes down to phenomenal writing. Additionally, the animation team put their whole Remedussy in to this one, because they're all SO expressive.
I also thought the live action scenes worked shocking well. Honestly, that's normally the kind of thing that is just cheesy and stupid in a video game, but I can't believe how well it worked here. Bravo to the actors.

ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, I do think this one is getting overrated just a tad. Because while it has a lot going for it, there are enough significant flaws that I can't overlook. Like I said, still very good, but there's no shot I could justify a 5/5 here.
First off all, the audio. My audio was frequently out of sync with the cutscenes and it looked like a foreign film that I was watching a dubbed version of. In addition, the jump scares man...90% of them suck ass. There were a few I can remember that were great and well-earned. But the vast majority were just startle merchant, lazy crap in the same style as the infamous Relaxing Car Drive video. It'll invoke a physical startle out of you, sure. But they're bad, lazy scares, and this game is FULL of them.
Then, there's the protagonist switching. Not a mechanic I'm generally a fan of, and this game isn't an exception. Luckily, both Alan and Saga are phenomenal characters. But it felt like I was playing two pretty separate games, and for me, that's not a pro. Saga's was the bright spot here, with her "mind place" being far more engaging and her case board being so much better than Alan's story board. I also found the puzzle mechanics (the story board and the light shit) on Alan's side to be frustrating and just flat out not fun. Luckily, the atmosphere and storytelling in his sections did enough to make up for it. But it just fell really flat for me in that regard.

Kind of an essay here lol but there was a lot to say on this one. TL;DR? It's not something I'd consider a personal GOTY contender, but it definitely has some of the makings of it and it has a great shot of landing in my top 10 for the year. It's a brilliantly made game, even if there are a handful of elements that didn't work at all for me personally. But there's certainly enough good to make up for the not so good

Dude, literally the most awesome shit you've ever seen happens in just about every main story mission. On top of that, almost all of the side content is super engaging, interesting and fun.
The gameplay itself is excellent. Traversal is still at an all-time great level here, and the stealth is SO satisfying. In fact, every time I came across an encounter where I couldn't do the stealth, I was kinda bummed that I had to do the regular combat - and the regular combat is good too. Sometimes a bit annoying when certain enemy types require certain inputs, but you get used to it. If I had to nitpick one other thing, I'd say that New York itself isn't really the greatest open world ever, but it certainly does the trick.
But what really counts here is the story and characters, both of which are phenomenal. The writing and voice acting locks this in as another 5/5 for Spidey, as the emotional beats work on an extremely high level due to both of those things. That combined with incredible action and very fun gameplay to carry you through to the next moment makes this is an unbelievable experience.
And without spoilers, the villain team up in Spider-Man 3 is gonna be absolutely unreal

I love the Assassin's Creed RPGs. They took my favorite franchise and turned it in to my favorite genre, and while sometimes the connections felt loose, I still love those games for what they are.
THAT BEING SAID, it felt so good to play something that felt so old school. You have an incredibly detailed city to explore in Baghdad, and you have EASILY the most "Assassin-y" main story in a hot minute, as you play as a Hidden One making his way up the ranks. The stealth gameplay is back in full force, and it is INCREDIBLY effective in this one, with plenty of tools at your disposal that make for very satisfying stealth gameplay.
The story has some lulls in it, I won't lie, but it felt good to play as a character that we already know and the story was overall pretty solid. I will say, that last mission/ending will definitely stick with me for a while though, it was awesome. My only other complaint is that the parkour didn't feel quite as smooth as I had hoped, but everything else more than makes up for it.
I love this series and I'm excited about the rumored RPG-style game coming next. I would love more games in this mold on occasion as well. But, if this does end up being the last one like this, I'm glad I got to play something that felt like classic AC one more time. Gave me some really nice nostalgia :')

There's juuuust enough flaws that added up to keep it from being a 5/5, but it's darn close.
This was an unforgettable experience and pretty much exactly what I look for in a video game. If the character writing was a bit stronger, and the faction quests were just a tad more engaging (they were very good, but not quite GREAT), this would be one of the single greatest gaming experiences I've ever had.
I love the settings, mind-bendy main story, the DETAILS, and all of the fun little things you can do.
I'll play many different types of games, but "Ooo a piece of candy!" RPGs will always be far and away what this hobby is all about for me lol.
Bravo, Bethesda! I hope one day we will return to the Starfield <3

Not surprisingly, this was nowhere near as bad as it's been made out to be.
That being said, it definitely isn't perfect. It does get rather repetitive at times, and the story did very little for me. However, I thought the gunplay was serviceable, the enemies were cool (especially the bosses) and the environments were SUPER sick. The town of Redfall itself was awesome to explore, and I thought there were a lot of cool details to look at. The vibe was very much there.
It may not be an absolutely triumphant shooter that is gonna change the world, and that's okay. Because at the end of the day, grabbing a friend and playing through this is a pretty damn fun experience, even if the game isn't a masterpiece