Callisto Protocol was one of my most anticipated games of the year and it sadly didn't scratch the survival Horror itch I was hoping it would.

The games atmosphere is great showing off the horrid Black Iron facility as you move about, the game jumps from fully enticing to mediocre almost in a room by room basis.
The combat is sometimes a clunky mess and other times a frantic brawl of melee strikes and dodges stringing together blows and shots to stun lock enemies till they die.

This is where my main complaint comes from with specific upgrades to your melee weapon, Jacob can infinitely lock down almost EVERY enemy in the game. After a few hours I had so much ammo and health injectors stocked up (Played on Maximum Security) the game lost all tension. Another random issue I had was that the tutorial for combat gave me the wrong idea for dodging. I spent the first half of the game trying to dodge like I was playing Fight Night, timing dodges left and right based on what arm was being thrown at me. Only to find out on the 5th chapter I just had to hold left or right.

While it may sound like I'm just dunking on this game for being clunky and easy to abuse there's genuine moments with Callisto where I was in love with its sci fi setting and lore building and characters. I really hope Striking Distance build upon this with a sequel and fine tune the combat.


Not quite what I imagined the spiritual successor to Dead Space to play like but, I still enjoyed my time with it. Looking forward to where the series goes from here.

Was not a fan of the campaign this year and overall the lack of movement tech (slide canceling) really impact my enjoyment of the multiplayer. It's a much shorter game and really limits the player. You can do some neat parkour jumps in SND maps for some early or late rotations however in core non CDL matches, these are things that will rarely be used.

Much of the experience is a buggy mess with crashes or the downright OP aim assist controllers get this year with the Dynamic option really make for a lackluster multiplayer experience. Maps are forgetable and most of the killstreaks are the standard affair we've been used to for years now.

Enjoyed it a bit more than the original Warriors FE game with the new world building and encampment additions. Also seeing how well it ran compared to the sequel to Hyrule Warriors that was atrocious.

However my main negative would be the focus on the Three Houses characters and not having more long term FE characters but you should know this coming in. Overall I hope we get another game in this series that focuses more on legacy characters but with the additions of this game. Something like Warriors Orochi 3 where everyone is there.

Xenoblade 3 was such a wonderful surprise this year. Even with the classic Switch Stank from the outdated console Monolith somehow delivers a masterful JRPG with massive scope and a interesting rendering solution to help the weak hardware of the switch still deliver a gorgeous looking game.

Over 80 hours in and still going for some endgame classes, the amazing combat is a slow burn. Starting out with just a few abilities but quickly showing the player just how deep the systems and mechanics go I was constantly enthralled with how much there was to learn and master. Figuring out what classes and what roles I wanted my party to take or combining different links on my ouroboros frames was a constant joy.