This game is really good. The gameplay is satisfying, the world is epic, and the overall experience is definitely one worth having.

4.5 stars because a couple of the bosses have terrible designs, and Blighttown & Tomb of the Giants exist. Even so, the experience of defeat-frustration-retries-success is a one-of-a-kind experience that hasn't been emulated in any other game series. This is where the whole "Souls-like" experience starts, & for a reason: it all just works.

Get ready to be incredibly frustrated at a couple of areas/bosses, be angry at the zero hints the game gives you, and be very glad when it's all over: beating Dark Souls was one of the most memorable gaming experiences I've ever had, and it's well worth your time.

That said, if you want a comfortable, armchair gaming experience where you can sit down and rest easy, don't play this game. It's a 4.5 for me--challenge is what I'm looking for!--but it'd likely be a 0.5 for you.

This game is the weirdest, most compelling game I've probably ever played. The gameplay uses a mix of several different styles to keep things fresh & interesting; the story is philosophical, exploring enough to be very interesting whilst not shoving anything down your throat.

A notable positive: the game takes place using just the same few areas, which serves NieR:A well, since you learn to navigate those areas very well by the end of the whole game. And that ending... if you know, you know.

This is a game that I played through in a fairly tight timeframe, and I definitely recommend it. It's certainly not for everyone, but if thought-provoking philosophy and some fast-paced action work for you, then you might consider looking into NieR: Automata.

Typically, when I play a game, I finish it, nod appreciatively, then go play a previous level/start a new playthrough/go to the next game in my backlog; with NieR, I finished it and sat in silence for a while. I know if I ever were to try and replay it, I wouldn't get the same experience. ...maybe I can in 30 years, when I start to forgot the most minute details.

Challenge, failure, frustration: retry. Challenge, success, elation! On to the next. Thus is the cycle of Ori & the BF.

There's so much to love, here: the art, the music, the aesthetic, the gameplay. A good Metroidvania isn't the easiest thing to pull off, but Ori's certainly done it: I did a quick playthrough of the game, always progressing, enjoying (almost) the whole thing. I feel that I could go back through the game and enjoy it all over again, seeking out all the secrets, diving into the world. It's fun, challenging, & smart. For that reason, I would definitely recommend it: it can be really frustrating sometimes, but the reward of mastering the puzzles & mechanics is very much worth it.

Why not 5 stars, then? Because the ending level is terrible. Throughout the game, there's this idea that you should try & fail, but in so doing you can learn the patterns to succeed the next time; the last sequence throws out that whole process by deciding to introduce RNG on a bunch of random things, so you can't just rely on muscle memory. It's fun in concept, but terribly frustrating in execution, so much so that it hurts the game. It was great fun--up until that point--but now I don't want to go through the game again, because I know I'll have to go through another hour of the random garbage in the last chase. It honestly feels like the devs got 99% of the way through but had to skip the last 1%, which destroys the ending & sours the entire experience.

This is one of the most enjoyable & wholesome games that I have ever played. I'd definitely recommend it, with a caveat: it's not for those who want an easy time, & it's weighed down by the ending sequence.

This game is great. A pretty basic story, all told, but solid enough to guide you through an interesting world and some really good gameplay.

Think the X-Files meets a great third-person shooter (can't think of an example right now), but it's got an atmosphere of creepiness mixed with some enjoyable combat. Not a very difficult game--it's a shooter that I finished on console, and I stink at shooters on console--but it's really fun and rather mysterious and I enjoyed it a lot.

Also, the physics engine means I can wreck every single deskroom and bathroom I come across. What a good day.

WASTELAND 3 is one of the greatest games I have ever played. It worked for me personally on many different levels:

The gameplay: I'm a big fan of XCOM-style strategy games, and this is a good one. I especially enjoy how both ranged and melee are viable options, and you just specialize characters however you want to.
The world: I enjoyed the setting of post-apocalypse Colorado, especially with all the bizarre characters they filled it with. It's basically another Fallout game, but I actually like the setting of it. And, add to that, the ending plays a song that captures all of your most important moments, changing lyrics to reflect your actions? Incredible. In all seriousness, it did feel like there were some actual consequences to my actions.
The humor: I'll admit, it's definitely weird, but the strong character moments combine with just enough (generally dark) comedy to make this game noticeably funny. I wouldn't call it a comedy, but it is the funniest game I've played. I laughed many more times than I thought I would, sometimes just out of bewildered amusement.
The soundtrack: I'm religious, and it was very surprising to me to hear a select few old hymns incorporated into the music of the game, but it worked wonders. They're really good renditions, firstly, but they also just fit. It's a bizarre experience to be watching a cutscene, see someone's head explode all over the screen in a gory mess, and then fight a battle listening to "Are You Washed In the Blood of the Lamb?" That just worked for me.

Negatives?

1. During the long fights--which, some fights can take upwards of 50 minutes--the music track loops. For the aforementioned hymns & ballads, it can get a bit repetitive.
2. You need to quicksave all the time. Some fights are incredibly stacked against you, and you'll pop into them without warning. Or, technical issues may strike (explained below)... Either way, it's easy to play for 2 hours without saving and lose all of that progress due to a lack of autosave and randomly difficult fights that you weren't warned of.
3. Technical issues: in my 50-ish hours, the game probably crashed ~15 times. And, despite playing on Xbox Series S, whenever I put my console to sleep, the game would face a critical error and cease running. I have no idea why this port is so ill-made, but that was primarily a minor annoyance.

Overall: this game is great. There's a ton of profanity and some very violent stuff, if you're worried about that, but the game itself is incredible. I look forward to replaying it in a few years, when the experience isn't quite so fresh.