You ever look at something and think 'No this is fine, I'M the problem'? For years, this was me with Sekiro.

I'm trying not to get into 'my life story in a recipe' territory, but I dropped this game three times before this successful fourth attempt. My puny dex brain struggled with sweeps punishing my dodges, I struggled to work the vertical axis into my gameplay, and I suck at parrying and am the biggest choke artist you'll ever meet. I couldn't even get past minibosses.

After playing Elden Ring, a part of me wondered if I would be better at the vertical aspect of the game. I'm so thankful for this little theory because this fourth attempt was now way more successful. I still sucked at parrying, but Rome wasn't built in a day.

I went way off the beaten path before returning to the main objectives and had a blast. I know there's a certain boss people say will teach you parrying, but I spent a day or two learning how to parry from an optional sideboss. I think I much preferred doing this as I felt less pressure knowing how bad I sucked wasn't keeping me from progressing the game, I was choosing to do this.

I would go as far as to say that Sekiro has made me a better and more confident gamer. I've beaten some hard ass bosses and super bosses in games, but I think the knowledge, confidence and composure you need to get far in Sekiro is one of a kind. This game made me feel good because the game was communicating to me that I was good.

I have some minor gripes with the game but I think they're far too subjective to detract from the quality of it. For example, I personally hated a series of bosses because I felt it was a dumb tonal shift from the shinobi fantasy I was enjoying, but I've heard I'm in the minority here so I'll take that L. I'm also sad that we didn't get more content for at least two characters because they sounded so damn cool, but I'd feel like a rat reducing the score because their writing was too good. Plus part of me wonders how influential Daddy Activision was in that decision.

I think the funniest compliment I can give this game is that I simply didn't approach it the way I usually approach Fromsoft games. I'm not afraid to read guides, find important items, make sure I have the good shit etc. I ended up missing a bunch of stuff (like the umbrella) simply because I didn't want to pause the game and read, I just wanted to keep playing. Another playthrough maybe!

Fromsoft cooked, holy shit. I'm so glad I could get over my dumb brain worms.

Alan Wake is a game which is a prime example of why I find number rating scores inaccurate and not very useful. I have been scoring games on here purely to organise my thoughts.

It has plenty of shortcomings. It has a functional combat system but it is rather one note and the spikes in difficulty can be insane. It feels like it wants to be a survival horror with resource management but you will find yourself awash with ammo and resources most of the time.

Later on it has some questionable puzzle choices which interrupt the pacing of the game. Platforming should have never been in the design document for this game either as it is imprecise and is not gratifying to do well.

Despite that, I am a huge fan of Stephen King, The Twilight Zone and cosmic horror and as a narrative the game is compelling. It strings you along from cutscene to cutscene with stellar direction, voice actors on their A-Game and an engaging spooky plot. It often stretches out into conceptualising plot elements in only the way video games can.

By the end you really feel like you know Alan well, as well as the great cast of characters which all fill the boots of some horror tropes pretty nicely while also bringing a lot of uniqueness thanks to some great dialogue.

As I said in my opener, numbers are not a good yardstick. I can’t in good conscience give this less than a perfect score. Game reviewing and criticism should not be a mundane checkbox exercise of what you notice literally works and not. It should be in reference to the whole experience, the aims of the development and the feelings you are left with.

It's a fantastic game and one of my favourites that I’ve played recently.