More bloated than the average midwesterner after 3 hours at the Chuck-a-Rama. Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a mess from the very beginning and it took some serious patience to finally finish this game after two previous attempts to do so in the past. How poorly scaled back the combat is from Kiwami 1, the extensive story deviations that go nowhere, and just too many characters are the tip of the iceberg regarding issues with this game. I could not imagine 100%'ing any of these Like a Dragon games. Still, Kiwami 2 would be miserable with all of the repetitive battles, a piss-poor upgrade system, and the inclusion of two high-maintenance mini-games with their own completion rewards/story beats. I have never yearned to play the original release before playing its remake.

I do not have the context surrounding the original PS2 version of this game to make a judgment call if this is a "faithful" remake, though from what discourse I've seen from longstanding fans, Kiwami 2 (and the remakes of the PS2 games in general) is quite controversial. It saddens me that SEGA doesn't seem to care to keep the original releases of these games going, say, for a few reprints they've had in the past, telling us these are the definitive versions of these experiences. SEGA making that call with something so bloated and boring as this has me even more curious to play the original releases of Yakuza 1 and 2 when I eventually make it through all these other games.

Ryuji is the only reason to see this through to the end.

Kojima's cinematic influences begin to flourish with the ambition showcased in Metal Gear 2. Noted as one of the greatest "glow-ups" from one game to the sequel, Metal Gear 2 tones back a bit of the cryptic nonsense of its predecessor and adds in ahead-of-its-time cutscenes, game mechanics, and, most importantly, finally feels like a stealth game.

It's nice to see Metal Gear contained compared to where the series immediately goes after this, down a rabbit hole of contrived rabbit hole that I love, yet I appreciate how reigned in the series is when it's establishing its footing.

The "haven't aged well" comments surrounding Metal Gear are aging faster than the game they're discussing. Sure, Metal Gear is antiquated in a few obtuse environmental puzzles. Yet, it is nowhere near the ridiculousness of Sierra and Lucas Arts adventure games that were released around the time and even long after Metal Gear's release. Because you have to figure out how and where to punch a wall and some plastic explosive locations, everyone has collectively lost their minds about this game instead of looking at it within the context of other games of this era. I find Metal Gear easier to figure out than Dracula's Curse ever was in the West. "Oh but you need a guide even to get anywhere in the game." Okay, how is this any different than other adventure games of the era? I don't see anywhere near the whining about the first several Metroid games, The Legend of Zelda, or plenty of other arguably antiquated games that helped pioneer massive franchises, let alone entire game design concepts that are still being used to this day.

I'm not going to die on a hill for Metal Gear because, yes, it is rather old and has some issues shared with its contemporaries. The formula is worked into a far better experience even by the second game, so it's no surprise the first entry is left in the dust the way it is these days. Metal Gear is still certainly worth playing today with the ease of access to online guides, the game's availability on all modern platforms, and to see where the stealth action genre got its roots. There are some mischievous tricks up Metal Gear's sleeves if you're not careful, but that isn't any different from other, more beloved games of its era.

Konami should never be forgiven for the awful font choice they went with in the Subsistence rerelease of MGS3 which brought these titles officially off the MSX for the first time, and have ran with ever since.

I think two solid days of play has me settled on how I feel about The Finals. There's a lot on offer in its levolution systems, gunplay, and build diversity to create a shooter worth investing time in. As The Finals (at the time of writing) does not have any pay-for -power systems many other F2P shooters on the market. The foundational blending of Battlefield and extraction-shooter game modes crafts a game that's neat in action, but gets old when you're being bothered by repetitive, obnoxious A.I. voice acting. I could see myself returning for more at the point of its removal, but even people who'll buy games from Ubisoft and Activision are drawing a line on the voice "acting" so it'll need to swap it out for some real people before many people I know will even consider it.

Tried playing this emulated off a PS Vita because a PSP Eboot was available. I'll say this does not play well on the handheld and isn't fun single-player. Though the controls are fine, TTTK (time to Thrill-Kill) is a bit egregious and only feels amplified with having at least 2 other kill animations you're forced to sit through every match, and all of them are the same decapitation animation until the final Thrill Kill is achieved.

I could see this coming alive in a multiplayer setting, but I will probably never have that luxury.

While the season is yet to conclude, I feel like sharing my thoughts, having hit level 103 in the current pass.

This season, all of the game mode additions have been a blessing to take a break from the far more competitive and often annoying shenanigans in the basic battle royale. While the collaborations, loot pool, map design, and traversal have seen major improvements from the OG season, the number of sweaty players compared to other seasons makes it hard for me to want to keep playing the solo zero build mode (where I spend most of my time) compared to other seasons. It's still fun to run around and cause mayhem in the battle royal, but this season's massive popularity increases the number of people with wild skill gaps from a majority of players. Never have I had so many subsequent games where I am not even finishing in the top 75 players unless I have at least one other friend to try and coordinate with.

As much as I whine about my "skill issues" and the like, I will continue to play especially to get my boy Solid Snake despite the fact they ROBBED him of his dummy thicc ass just like Omni Man, Leon Kennedy, and many more sexy boys before him.

Not bothering to log my playtime/dates on this as I do that for the season page of Fortnite, anyway. Rocket Racing is by far the best and most fleshed out mode added to Fortnite for the Chapter 5 launch. I'm a bit sad sentiment seems to be a bit more negative on this mode, and the player counts flounder as much as they do. All Rocket Racing really needs to "take off" are just a few more tracks aside from the somewhat mixed bag provided by Psyonix. With dev credits displayed at the end of every race, it's implied we can see more maps from the community at the very least, and certainly hope we'll see more soon. Where Rocket Racing currently stands, it's good enough for me to have invested enough time in it to hit Gold rank this season, and certainly see myself playing more in the future.

Not bothering to log my playtime/dates on this as I do that for the season page of Fortnite, anyway. Fortnite Festival is fun, but the controls are still rather difficult to wrap around without Rockband peripheral support. Epic says they'll be introducing said support next year, and will certainly invest more time in the mode at that point. My largest complaint aside from the controls is how overpriced songs are for said mode. It's nice to be able to use purchased songs in other modes, but essentially $5 a track (especially with such pisspoor selection) is a ripoff, meaning you're subjected to whatever is on the daily rotation or play whatever original garbage Epic, themselves cook up.

I say this but I did buy Buddy Holly for the meme so I have no high horse to stand on, here.

Not bothering to log my playtime/dates on this as I do that for the season page of Fortnite, anyway. Lego Fortnite is fine, ultimately and offers enough to keep a player interested for a few hours, yet the structure is clearly skeletal, and it's hard to muster reasons to play after upgrading the village a few times. Issues like building item clipping, scant "pre-built" structures, and no ability to check challenge tabs in-game are just some of the issues I'd like to see resolved before I spend anymore time in this aside from goofing with friends while I'm drunk off my ass.

In my usual Pokemon escapades, it took me far too long to finally see the credits of Pokemon Y. While the other games could just be excused by their sheer amount of content or even some grinding, Pokemon Y took me months to complete because of sheer boredom.

The personality, story beats, and challenge of Gen 5 is gone.
The expansiveness of Gen 2/4, vanished.
What's left is a member-berry salad of half-hearted nostalgia bait, fueled by a boring story with incredibly annoying characters. Everything culminates into an experience that's too easy to remain engaging on a gameplay front, and too dull to hold interest in its narrative.

I have negative interest in doing any of the "post game," honestly considering just jumping straight to Omega Ruby to just rip the bandaid off.