This review will be overly negative, so I will just state in the beginning that I think that Elden Ring is an excellent video game, and I would much rather play it again, than the majority of games released in the past few years.

Despite the open world structure, Elden Ring is very familiar with the Dark Souls series. The mechanics are the same, the enemies behave the same, the character progression is the same, the quests progress in the same way, the story is told in the same way. It stands on the foundation of the 6 previous from software games. The biggest difference is obviously the open world, and the addition of horse riding in the open areas.

Due to the open nature of the world, for it to be interesting, it must be filled with a lot of stuff to keep the player engaged in the exploration. Unfortunately, it falls in the same traps as a lot of other open world games:  there is a lot of repetition. Locations such as catacombs, mines and ruins, although different from each other, repeat a lot without much variation, and are not that interesting. There is a massive variety of enemies and bosses, however it's still not enough due to the absurdly gigantic scope of the game. You end up fighting some of the same bosses 6 times. The highlights are the traditional dungeons, but they are all too familiar to what we got in previous games.

Enemy behavior/AI is the same as previous games. In an open world environment, the encounters are trivialized, since it is easy to avoid everything. 

The addition of Spirit Ashes trivializes every boss. To counterbalance the help of the Spirit Ashes, there are a lot of bosses that feature multiple enemies at the same time. The problem is that boss fights that feature a single enemy become extremely easy. In contrast, bosses seem to be balanced with Spirit Ashes in mind and if you don't use it, it becomes frustrating.

There was no fundamental change in the gameplay compared to Froms previous titles to encompass its new open world structure. The world is simply there. There are no new environmental hazards, there is no weather system, there are no interactions with the world. The only dangers you face are caused by the enemies.

In summary, the highest points of the game happen during the "traditional dungeons", and the lowest happen because of the open world. The change to an open world structure was detrimental to the quality of the game. If the legacy dungeons were connected to each other, and the repetitive and low quality content such as catacombs, mines, ruins, repetitive boss encounters, etc. was simply cut off, the game would be better. Unfortunately, I felt that I was playing the same game for the seventh time. It is far from being a bad game. On the contrary, it's very good, but the fatigue is real. 

Very well made game but brings nothing new to the genre.

The soundtrack is good but short, resulting in the same song being repeated for every stage of a world.

Unfortunately there is a lot of stuttering in the Switch version, which impacts the gameplay during more busy moments.

Pokémon has not evolved much since Gold and Silver. Although i think the original formula pretty good it has been the same for 20 years without significant change. Legends is finally a worthwhile sequel that tries to revolutionize the formula breaking its conventions and does it very well.

Now the focus has changed to what I enjoy most in pokemon games, which is to catch them all, instead of being the best trainer in the world. With the open world, and the pokemon roaming around, the core gameplay loop consists in exploring everything trying to find every pokemon, and catch them all. Gone are the super slow battle screens to capture a pokemon, now you just try to be stealthy and throw a pokeball. Of course there are exceptions, in which you have to battle, however, the battle system also is much quicker and are a good change of pace. Everything now is just so quick to do, it is bizarre how long gamefreak took to implement these ideas.

Unfortunately the game is not without its flaws. I dont mind the graphics very much, I think they are okay, however the biggest problem here is the performance, specially the extremely poor pop in of everything that directly impacts the core gameplay loop. In a game where your main focus is to observe and capture creatures in the wild, pokémons materializing 5 meters ahead of you out of nowhere takes you out of the immersion.

There is also a completely unnecessary focus on the story. Your task as a researcher is great already, and is enough. This is a point where the game should have taken more inspiration from breath of the wild. Just give the player more freedom, without being constrained by the horrible story.

Considering that pokémon is the biggest multimedia franchise in the world, I imagine gamefreak has some pretty tight deadlines, and cannot afford the same development cycles as the teams at Nintendo that develop the mainline Zeldas or Marios. Legends Arceus has some obvious flaws. It is from a perfect game. But almost all of the fundamental changes in the core formula were a big improvement. There is a lot of room for refinement here, and that is a good thing. After 20 years the future is exciting for the pokémon series once again.

In the sea o mediocrity that is video games stories and writing, Disco Elysium stands so high above almost everything else that makes you reflect if video games are a capable medium for certain types of stories. I really appreciated the more mature subjects adressed by the game and not in a "oh this is a big boys game" type of way that usually taints these kinds of dicussions related to vídeo game stories. One of the merits of disco Elysium is in giving you the choice in how to handle some topics that are always avoided in mainstream releases, and this role playing aspect of the game was the highlight for me. I was a little disapointed by the conclusion of the central mystery, but the journey to that point is what counts and is really well done.

As a player i am personally much more invested in gameplay/mechanics driven experieces than story driven games. I think vídeo game narratives can be so much more than text (lots and lots of it in the case of disco Elysium) and dialog between the characters, or the internal dialog of the main character. Mechanically the game does not offer much. Although obviously limited by the type of story being told, you essentially do nothing more than explore the enviroments and talk to other characters while selecting a few dialog options. I was very interested in the story and the interactions, but it was a boring game to play.

Loved Terry Cavanaugh previous games so I had high hopes for Dicey Dungeons...

Its is a clever twist on the turn based RPG genre, but after just a couple of hours things started to get repetitive and it seems to keep this way for the next 20 hours? Although each character introduces new mechanics, things dont change that much, and to play every episode with every character felt like too much filler.

The music is excellent, but the artstyle is very unapealing.

Maybe starting the game with high expectation just contributed with my disapointment... I dont know. Tried to enjoy, but just couldnt.

I think that for the most part Disc Room is a good game. But at a certain point in the game i was not relying only on my skills, but a lot of times a got the feeling that i was just being lucky or unlucky. By the end, i wasnt sure i was playing because i was having fun, but because i wanted to overcome the challenge (a similar sentiment i had when playing Super Meat Boy).

There is a fine line between a fair challenge and frustration. The randomness of the disc spawns and some of their behavior bring Disc Room to the frustrating side. I beat the final boss, but eventually gave up on the game during hard mode.

It is okay. A very well done remake.

Dark Souls took the dark fantasy vibe and elevated it to such high standards that make Diablo look boring in comparison. On top of that it added good mechanics and well though game design.

I just wished my habilities as a player matter more in Diablo 2. It felt like the progression is only dependent on my characters level and equipments.

Great understanding of the arcade style, mega drive 2D side scroller. It is one of those games where the first playthrough is the tutorial, and the experience gets better in multiple playthroughs and the arcade mode. The music is very good and i like the restraint with the amount of story (text, cutscenes, etc.).

The game is very short, and maybe the grapple hook mechanic could be more utilized. I was also a little confused by the backgroud art and what i could actually interact in the scenarios (plataforms and enemies).

The performance on the Switch is not perfect, and the game does not seem very demanding.