An excellent fantasy RPG which I played vanilla on Xbox One. Bethesda's trademark exploration and freedom of player choice are on full display here, encouraging the player to just go have fun. Not much to say which hasn't been said before. I'm currently replaying Skyrim on PC with 2,000+ mods, and can come back and appreciate my time with the base game on Xbox, which says something.

100% Completion Notes: A list that has the player become the leader of every faction in the province on top of being the mystical chosen one. Thankfully all the missions are worth playing. A fun list that focuses more on pushing the player towards the games many systems.

A unique adventure game in a similar vein to Telltale's decision-based stories. Add on top a divisive coming-of-age story with preternatural themes sprinkled in, and you have a successful story-based game recipe. The protagonist's power makes for a fascinating gimmick that fits the narrative like a glove. If you can get past the intentionally teen-styled dialogue, the vibes and soundtrack of this one more than makes up for any cringing you might do.

100% Completion Notes: The achievement list centers around 'Optional Photos' -- small moments during each chapter of the game that has Max take a photo of something and comment on it. An unobtrusive way to add collectibles which I enjoyed.

Extremely boring aquarium simulator.

On a less cynical note, this game has some beautiful environments, but the gameplay was too thin and repetitive for me to enjoy the game as a whole.

100% Completion Notes: Extremely straightforward list with hardly any missables or challenges. The only thing that got me to the end.

The peak of the Borderlands franchise, this game capitalized and expanded on the strengths of its predecessor, and put co-op looter shooters on the main stage. The humor (which might not hold up today) landed consistently, and the gameplay/rpg elements were fun and engaging. A gem of the 360/PS3 era.

100% Completion Notes: Hoooowee, this was one of the first games I was convinced I'd have to give up the achievement grind on. There are just so many RNG achievements. But luck ended up on my side, and another 100% was added to my collection. Aside from the RNGs, a very fun list that has you exploring the ridiculous world of Pandora from top to bottom. No regrets.

One of my favorite modern horror games, even without having seen any Alien movies at the time of playing. The AI of the Xenomorph is really impressive, and the higher you crank the difficulty, the scarier it gets. As good as the titular Alien is, some of the tensest moments were sneaking around rooms of creepy, uncanny valley androids. This game drips with atmosphere, and now having seen the original movie, I can say it emulates the setting and vibe incredibly well. The only thing keeping this game from a perfect 5 stars for me was the length. The environments and gameplay didn't differ enough to justify its 20 hour runtime.

100% Completion Notes: A very fun experience, however the aforementioned length issues were really exacerbated with having to play through again. The walkthrough I had looked through recommended doing the no death and hardest difficulty runs separately. When I eventually play through this again on PC, I'll definitely be trying both runs at once.

Ahh, the beginnings of my favorite horror franchise. The first hours spent inside the puzzling Spencer Mansion are some of the best survival horror content in existence. Even though I have plenty of this franchise left to experience, it's reputation precedes it, and every entry I have played has completely hooked me. Even in this remaster, the graphics and gameplay show their age, but not so much to affect the overall experience. The cheesy dialogue and campy plot are counterbalanced by intriguing puzzles and genuinely tense moments to make an incredibly charming package.

100% Completion Notes: I've quickly realized that the Resident Evil achievement lists are some of my absolute favorites. Yes, it requires many, many playthroughs. But the challenge runs are so fun and varied, and the game itself so short, that this was a blast to complete.

I'm not sure why everybody calls this game a souls-like. In some loose ways (respawning enemies and dodge/parry third person combat), it is, but in many other ways it is more akin to an Uncharted-like 3rd person action. Either way, it's a very fun package that undoubtedly gets a boost from the Star Wars brand. The story was engaging and I loved almost all of the characters, excited for the second game to expand on this base!

100% Completion Notes: Having to run through entire levels again just to find a couple obscure collectibles or enemy types was brutal. This game would've seriously benefited from a more robust fast travel and map system (which I hear the second game thankfully has).

A very welcome shake-up of the Assassin's Creed Formula. I personally think the shift to a more "Witcher-like" combat and RPG system breathed fresh life into a series that was seriously stagnating. Still couldn't give a damn about the modern day storylines, but as an Ancient Egyptian RPG, it works very well.

100% Completion Notes: Yeesh, this one sucks to do. So many little locations and objectives across a massive map. If I hadn't had an achievement race going with a friend at the time, I'm not sure if I would've powered through to get this one done. I hear Odyssey is even worse in this regard. Yippee!