“It’s not a loop, it’s a spiral…”

What can I say about this game that hasn’t already been said. Sam Lake and his team’s own Lynchian tale finally realized 13 years after the release of Alan Wake, culminated in a harrowing tale of Alan escaping from the dark place, and Saga, our new protagonist, trying to solve the several mysteries haunting Bright Falls and being pulled into Alan’s nightmare.

Beautifully terrifying, a familiar land thats both comforting and oppressing in its existence. It wears its Twin Peaks inspiration on its sleeve gladly, the writing offers you many roads of thought, many realizations and shockers that you just have to keep hanging on right to the end.

The gameplay still sticks to the basic, “flashlight in one hand, pistol right in the other,” but this time instead of being terrible, Remedy this time copied from the RE remakes. Mostly RE2R and RE3R. I could tell from the fact the dodge, like in those games, really can’t dodge all that well LMAO. But it’s a massive improvement from Alan Wake, so I really can’t complain.

At the time I’ve written this, what is really hindering this game is the bugs at the last 5-6 hours. It’s common for a game to have the first half of the game to be rather perfect from bugs and the last half be riddle with bugs, but this game honestly has so many bugs that soft locks you from progressing it just made me want to stop playing for a week. I’m glad I didn’t do that, and no doubt they will fix them in the upcoming weeks but I do want to warn anyone that’s thinking of playing the game soon.

Despite all that, I do genuinely believe this is the best game of this year. A surreal, horror game that doesn’t hold back on its ideas, and everything pays off in the end. I can’t wait for the DLC, and I can’t wait to see what Sam Lake takes the series with Control 2.

Also there’s a musical chapter so nothing else that came out this year can top that.

Video games are so back baby

What a delightful surprise from team reptile, they perfectly encapsulated the nostalgia of the 2000s and street fashion itself. The skating, music and graffiti were the most satisfying elements that blended the best game this year has ever seen.

Unfortunately, it loses one star because not every thing we love is perfect - who ever decided that Pyramid City should be implemented needs to on god be shamed for the rest of their lives, and we could’ve honestly let the combat go entirely (except when the skating works into the boss fights, thats the most fun).

now THIS is the game I wanted 2018 to be.

improves SO much of what 2018 laid out but it wasn't afraid to call back to the original series. combat is satisfyingly similar to God of War 3 in its animation, down to the executions. animation itself isn't afraid to let loose, no longer stiff in combat and in transforms and allowed to actually flow nicely.

the story blows 2018 and even arguably most of the 'prestige' Sony games out of the water. They did not hesitate to make you laugh, make you cry, and make you feel a satisfy end to Kratos's story (and the beginning to Atreus's). This game has what 2018 didn't have - personality. Hell, at time I felt like I was watching an actual play!

nearly every problem I have in the new series has been addressed and fixed in this entry. i'm glad i had the privilege to actually play it right to the end, and it's post credits content

I just want to say while I was excited for the inclusion of selectable pronouns for my character (especially they/them pronouns), I do want to take a moment and point out Zenimax's horrible treatment to their trans employee. It did weight heavily on my mind when I tried to play this game and kinda soured how I saw the companies attempt at trans inclusivity. I do understand this isn't the Starfield's developers fault but...yknow.

Anyway, onto the review.

I honestly could not get into this game. At all.

Which is surprising to me - I will admit, I'm a huge Bethesda fan, and I love space games. I was foolishly hoping this game will hold me over for when the next Mass Effect comes out. But nothing in this game gravities to me at all. The gameplay loop is the same old crap you find in any other Bethesda game (but less interesting this time around), exploration was made more apparent how truly boring it is when you have a galaxy worth of planets of endless gray sprawled before you. No characters to hook you in and menus are too cumbersome and confusing to navigate that I rather try to figure out how electricity works in Fallout 4 again.

Speaking of which, that's what more disappointing about this game. I've seen people say this is just a reskinned Fallout 4, but at least I have fun playing Fallout 4! Every time I booted up this game, I just think to myself, "Man, I rather be playing Fallout right now," and thats exactly what I did!

I hope even with the success of this game, Bethesda takes the time and reevaluate their approach to RPG development for their future games sake. With other RPGS releasing now, it's no doubt Bethesda will be left in the dust with a dwindling fanbase. In any case, at least I got a stupid $80 dollar controller to celebrate this games release.

Yiiiippie.

instead of Stray, this should on the GOTY nominations. i have no doubt in my heart for many years to come this will be among Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc for the best Survival Horror games to change how we go about seeing and implementing mechanics in horror games. But honestly, it doesnt only remind me of the classics, it reminds me of Hylics with its gore, and its writing really reminded me of the Southern Reach book series. Rather this is intentional or not, it's a testament to how otherworldly the writing is. If you're looking for a good survival horror to play, especially after the disappointing Callisto Protocol, play this!

I remember back in high school, this asshole I was friends with repeatedly told me this game was better than the Fallout series combined try to get under my skin. It did so out of spite I didn’t play the game until today.

I really wasn’t missing out much…while the story and the land surrounding said story was interesting enough, they were bounded by uninteresting art design and poor gameplay at times I felt myself confuse on what to do or even go, even though I had the controls pretty much locked down. I rather go play Stalker or any of the 3D Fallouts than this game, but theres several games left in the series that I at least want to give them a shot before giving up and going straight to the books instead