Uchikoshi the GOAT (3)

Strong contender for my fave VN of all time alongside VLR.

It legitimately has one of the best stories I've ever witnessed in the entire medium of gaming with some of the craziest and most complex writing, but cohesive and coherent at the same time and the plot twists never feel cheap or ass-pulled, not surprising though considering it's written by the genius mind behind the Zero Escape trilogy.

The game has about 30 hours of content with some very unique and creative puzzles, an amazing OST and incredible dual audio with one of the best English dubs I've heard with some phenomenal work by Erika Harlacher, Greg Chun and DC Douglas especially.

Seriously I can't praise this one enough give it a shot if you like sci-fi murder mystery stories.

Replaying God of War II for the first time in 15 years reminded me why I loved this game so much as a teenager and why it is still my favorite of the trilogy. The PS2 has a library of over 1000 games and even so you'd be hard pressed to find many that reach the same heights as God of War II, truly one of the finest games available on the system.

God of War II picks up roughly 13 years after the events of the first game. Kratos is now the new God of War. Shunned by his fellow gods for his destructive ways, Kratos finds a new family in his Spartan Army and starts to lay waste to Greece one city at a time. Naturally this angers Zeus and he takes matters into his own hands by betraying Kratos, stripping him of his godly power and killing him out of fear that Kratos will kill him first. Kratos finds new allies in the Titans who are the sworn enemies of the Gods and after crawling out of Hades itself he sets out on a new quest for revenge against the Gods by journeying to the Island of Creation and seeking an audience with the Sisters of Fate in hopes of turning back time, changing his fate and stopping Zeus' betrayal before it ever even happens.

Running nearly double the length of the first game, this story is just simply epic from start to finish and I love the themes of defying the Gods and taking fate into your own hands. Kratos' quest to change fate itself mostly takes place on the Island of Creation, but the level design is so well crafted, creative and diverse you'd think it was an epic sprawling adventure across the whole world like the first game despite being much more secular in nature. My personal fave area has to be the Palace of the Fates near the end of the game, the way all the individual areas and puzzles are so intricately connected in the Palace of the Fates is just masterclass game design.

The first God of War primarily focused around building Kratos' backstory and giving him character development, but God of War II puts more emphasis on expanding the world of God of War and boy does it do so marvelously. Bringing in many various legends and myths from the story of Chronos and the Titans to the three Sisters of Fate Lachesis, Atropos and Clotho or Jason from Jason and the Argonauts (Shout out to the skeleton enemies that have animations and move similarly to the ones in the 60s Argonauts movie) Icarus, Prometheus and Perseus (Who is also voiced by Harry Hamlin who played Perseus in the 80s Clash of the Titans movie) among others. This game is filled to the brim with references to heroes and legends in Greek myth and so much detail went into making them feel authentic in this world and that's one of my favorite parts of the game. No other game has captured Greek myth as well as God of War II has.

While the combat is mostly the same as the first there are some newly added magic powers and an expanded weapons arsenal adding a couple new sub weapons (although I honestly find those kind of useless), but where the gameplay of God of War II is truly expanded upon is thanks to Kratos being able to grapple onto things alongside getting many items including an amulet which lets him slow time Prince of Persia style or a pair of wings to glide with which add an extra layer of dimension to both the platforming and puzzles that are found throughout the game.

God of War II is a game that takes everything I loved about the first and turns it up to 11 making it more grandiose. Whether that be the higher stakes narrative, detailed world-building with much love for the mythology it represents or expanded gameplay systems, if God of War (2005) set the standard for action adventure games then God of War II redefined it and raised the bar in every way imaginable. A sequel just as iconic and memorable as its predecessor and a journey well worth going on even 15 years later.

What can I even say about this game that hasn't already been said? It's regarded as the best in the series for a reason after all.

One of the best written crime drama stories you'll experience in a game. All the characters are amazing and have so much depth and development, the side stories and mini-games are just as good as the main story, the gameplay is one of the best action combat systems out there and the music is just as good as everything else in the game.

Peak Yakuza.

The best RGG story yet, but a few of the new gameplay elements like the tailing missions (Cool the first couple times, extremely annoying the next 50) and the threat meter keep the score from reach the 5/5 status, but without a doubt still a phenomenal game with tons of content, had about 60 hours in when I finished and I still had 5 side cases and a little extra content left to do too.

It does pain me not to be able to give the game a 5/5 because the story is one of the best detective/courtroom drama/serial killer thriller I've seen unfold on my TV screen, but those few gameplay flaws just got too damn tedious to ignore.

Still highly recommended to anyone who wants a great mystery story and some fantastic beat-em up action (This is the Dragon Engine at its absolute best) with amazing martial arts choreography though. If you're a fan of the Yakuza or the Phoenix Wright series this is definitely one you don't want to miss!

Haven't played this game since back when it first released back in 2017. I hated it back in those days. The game is like 2/5 playing the normal mode as far as I'm concerned.

The game gets tons of shit because it's popular and a big zoomer game, but coming back to it after 5 years and playing the 'no build' game type is genuinely the most fun I've had with a multiplayer game in years. Fortnite is just a wacky over-the-top Looney Tunes-like BR at its core, but it has the best map design, gunplay and other various mechanics that make it the most enjoyable BR I've ever played, but it was always that one gimmick that ruined and held the game back for me, removing that actually makes the game fun, especially playing with friends. Also there's tons of cool character skin collaborations as well so that's a plus.

A great sequel to one of the best 3rd person shooters ever. The gameplay is tighter and more responsive than the first, especially the platforming sections, there's some new guns and the bullet time mechanic is more refined because now it slowly auto-refills and when you do the shootdodge it doesn't drain your bullet time meter anymore either.

The story is great as always this time focusing on Max's relationship with Mona Sax. Max learns to live and love again after the events of the first game. It's a neo-noir love story full of betrayal and death and it's really well told, but it just doesn't hit me as hard as the story of revenge in the first game.

Also I miss Sam Lake as the face of Max.

A strong contender for my favorite game of all time. Played it 2 years ago when it first came out, but playing it again was just as amazing, maybe even more so since this time since I played it on PS5 and not only did it run at a stable frame rate, but the ray-tracing graphics enhanced the experience even more. One of the best looking games I've ever played without a doubt.

What do you get when you mix the SCP Foundation with X-Files and Twin Peaks add some Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror, a whole hell of a lot of Jungian psychology (Archetypes, collective unconsciousness, synchronicity etc) and have David Lynch direct it? One of the most unique and ambitious games of not only last gen, but of all time AKA Control, that's what you get.

It's very rare, but every once in awhile comes an artistic vision so grand, so deep and so unique that it just leaves a massive impact on me months, even years later after I first experienced it. Control is one of those times. I played this game back on PS4 when it was first released, beat it multiple times and then when the first expansion was released I came back to it and played through it again and still it was just as amazing as the first time. Hell, I love the game so much that I bought it on Steam just so I could post a review of it and also bought multiple copies for friends as gifts.

The characters are great and super memorable especially the protagonist Jesse Faden (Serious gf material) which has that kind of sarcastic wit and weirdness that reminds me of a cross between Fox Mulder and Dale Cooper with some Buffy Summers in there as well or the eccentric mad scientist type that Casper Darling is or the quirky Finnish janitor Ahti (Without going into spoilers Ahti is much more than meets the eye). The voice acting performances by Courtney Hope, Matthew Porretta and Martti Suosalo among others are all top notch and really help bring these characters to life.

While the core story itself is fairly simple, the themes, concepts and world around it is anything but and truly unlike anything else out there in video games. The world that Sam Lake and Remedy crafted with this game is just so genuinely fascinating I was always excited when I found another document or piece of flavor text that expanded upon it. It's rare I read all those documents in games, but I always find myself doing so with Remedy games because their worlds and characters are so interesting and well written they always leave me awestruck. Another fact to note is that Control is in a shared universe with Remedy's other classic Alan Wake (And there are many hints to it being in the same universe as Max Payne and Quantum Break as well) Remedy have basically made their own interconnected universe akin to Marvel and I'm all for it.

Also something I have to point out and I don't see many people mention is how Control is a pretty big love letter to H.P. Lovecraft and cosmic horror (however not in the conventional sense), due to it being modern and having its own unique lore and characters instead of using his I feel like most people don't pick up on this, but if you pay attention to the story, world and all the lore (Especially the videologs) it's easy to see this is a Lovecraftian game in every sense of the word and It's also got a very abstract, artsy vibe to the cut-scenes and special effects, not too far off from what you'd see David Lynch do and these two major components meld very well together I must say.

Despite being one of my fave games of all time, I won't say it's 100% perfect. Yeah the game has its fair share of technical problems on older hardware (Runs perfect on PS5 though) and there are minor design issues like not much enemy variety, annoying RNG weapon mod drops etc, but I enjoy everything else so much that these flaws are completely insignificant to me.

The combat system is incredible and lots of fun, especially when you get into a nice rhythm with it and start chaining together all your different powers for cool combos using all these awesome psychic powers from telekinesis, mind control, creating shields out of debris around you, levitation and air dashes and the gunplay is also quite different, seeing as how you only have one real weapon, but it can shapeshift into different forms. Even just exploring every inch of the FBC to uncover more of its history and unravel the mysteries it holds was always thrilling. I'm a sucker for that metroidvania style sense of progression, being able to backtrack when you get a new power that unlocks a new secret area or a whole new section of the map never gets old to me.

Even though the game itself is very short taking the average player about 15 hours to finish, I got more enjoyment out of those 15 hours I spent with Control than most games I spend 30-40 hours in. Also it's pretty rare I decide to replay a game right after beating it, but I always find myself doing this with Remedy's masterpieces, Control being no exception. I played through this game 5 times in full and never got bored of it.

Oh and I could gush about the scenery and art design for hours, it takes a LOT of artistic creativity to make a story take place entirely in one setting and do it well, but due to 'The Oldest House' being a building in constant quantum flux and shifting between different dimensional planes of reality Remedy really utilized that concept well.

All in all I highly recommend Control to anyone looking for a very interesting more modern take on the surreal, psychological, cosmic horror style with an incredibly well built world or for anyone who has always wanted to live out their fantasies as being an ESPer who fights extra-dimensional beings, you won't be disappointed.