Really interesting and cool concept, but god damn does it make me feel like the world's greatest fool. A one million year old idiot with wet cake for a brain.

I looked up solutions for maybe 90% of the puzzles, and not one of them gave me an "Ah, of course!" moment. Each time was like watching a new idea born before me in a language I would never understand.

The last straw was a level fittingly called Existential Crisis, that even looking up the solution didn't help because the puzzle was updated at some point and there are no guides for the new version.

Baba Is Fuckin' At It.

A lovely wee thing that gives a glimpse into a culture I never knew existed. A place named after my own country no less.

Tchia lets you just kinda mess about. Possess a bird and fly over villages. Make it do a shit. Play your uke to summon a plant that bounces you into the air, or a bubble helmet that gives you infinite breath for deep diving. Take out a camp of creatures made from fabric by controlling a plank of wood to roll through a fire and burn them all to unlock some cool sunglasses. Do the palm tree thing from Beverly Hills Ninja. It's a bit of a simple wee playground, but the playground is big.

The story surprised me because despite not being anything incredible, it's quite dark and got me a few times while also being humorous in places. You can just tell there's a lot of love here. It oozes throughout.

I understand the BOTW chat at a glance, but please don't go in expecting that. The elements it does borrow are very light indeed, and we need to stop comparing everything with grass fields and a glider to it. The "collectathon" chat can be taken with a grain of salt too, because that's completely optional, and while there are a ton of map markers, you maybe only have to search out 20 of them unless you like just exploring.

In the nicest way possible, just chill out, switch your brain off, and take control of a chicken that lays explosive eggs.

I waited a wee while after finishing to see how I felt days later. Can still see myself taking a half star off somewhere down the line.

The best conclusion I can come to is that yes it's very nice and shiny, but I hate that the rules seem to have gone. It feels like a toolset has been removed. RE4's combat had rules to it. You knew how to manipulate the crowd. Kiting enemies together then using a well placed shot to get a stun and roundhouse the lot of them. A leg shot on the running dude would put him on the ground and buy time to take out the stronger enemy coming at his back, or even let you go to town on him with the knife as he stands up to save ammo. You figured out the rules, and used them to your advantage. But now all those interactions feel like pure luck the game occasionally deigns to let you have. It feels like a consequence of chasing the realism that modern Resi goes for. They don't want recognisable patterns from photorealistic enemies. There need to be subtle movements and stuff that feel natural or the illusion breaks down. The arcadeyness is gone in favour of a fucking chicken being able to stun Leon long enough to let Ganados get a command grab on him. I'm just rambling here. But this all feels very clear coming off a replay of the original the day before release.

In their brilliant review, RexZakel said: "Ultimately, a big realization I made about RE4 Remake compared to the original is that it’s a game where things simply happen to you, rather than a game where you can make things happen."

Nail on the head.

There is something so funny about your "rebirth" game having a story that feels written by AI, a terrible ending, and it actually killing the series.

It's been ages since I played the original, so it's impossible to compare the parkour. I remember it feeling tight and responsive, and this time round there's a looseness to it I just can't get on board with. The swinging stuff often sent me flying over to the side and dropping to my death instead of the direction I was holding. Wall runs only seemed to initiate 70% of the time, and the combat... Fuck me, the combat. It's so rigid. There's a feeling of every attack button locking you into an animation that either connects or gets blocked. Over and over while you try to avoid gun enemies that face one direction and shoot bullets in the other. I lost count of the amount of dudes I was running up behind and saw the muzzle flash come through their back and drop me without them even turning around. A miserable thing.

I started playing this when Steam still had to open Origin to get it running. But at some point it swapped to the new EA app and completely tanked performance. It went from smooth as butter to having bizarre pop-in and massive frame hang. EA stays winning.

I remember this being more solid but it turns out that was because I played the 360 port with the improvements.

It's very funny that the main aspect of the game is so jank. Melee combat at the forefront and it feels a bit like trying to fight in water. You could understand the guns being the dodgy part, but they feel equally just as loose as throwing hands.

The setting and mad character designs do the heavy lifting. It's an interesting world, and it certainly helps that the big "I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME, GADGET" voiced motherfucker do be cubin'.