Borderlands 2: The Video Gaming Experience is a slightly acquired taste - but there is an undeniable flow here once you figure it out. With the Diablo influence finally finding its feet, the game walks the line between Zany and Serious in both its combat and narrative in a way thats riveting and compelling. The sad truth is: Gearbox will probably never write a character as good as Handsome Jack (or most of the cast) ever again.

In fact (hot take) it was probably essential that Borderlands 2 was written with a largely comedic lean, because the unserious attitude helps you feel less seriously about the games cheap feeling gameplay. The games looter-churn means youll be obligated to use guns that suck in a game where the shooting already kind of sucks, the artstyle is pretty but also very poorly assembled and buggy - it all feels less irritating (key word being “less”) when the world is already absurd and illogical.

'Marina is so hot' my eldest daughter insists on telling me. I do not fucking care. "I do not fucking care" I bellow to her. "Go downstairs and - sweet christ - flip burgers in my restaurant my self proclaimed child. for free"
"Oh father, hallowed be thy name, just for one mere Saturday morning may I-". I raise my eyebrow to such an extent that, as I had previously insisted, she walked downstairs to work in my restaurant. come to my restaurant after you finish this game please and that is not me talking to my daughter this time that is directed towards you

Final Fantasy XV is a beautiful game. That's a corny way to start off a review, but saying, "a Final Fantasy for fans and first-timers" is a corny way to start a game, so I must respond in kind. I know it had a long and troubled production, and that it came out unfinished, and it rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way. I remember reading forum discussions in 2013 where players would ask, "Do companies think it's right to make us wait ten years for a game?"

Well, if they put stuff out on par with this game, they absolutely fucking can. I'll get on with my life in the meanwhile. I'm a bit more sympathetic to those who played it on release. But I can't really know or care much about how the game was seven years ago, so much as what it was like when I was playing it seven days ago.

It tells the tale of four friends who set out on a journey to obtain a ring and end up fighting a threat that could plunge the world in darkness forevermore (J. R. R. Tolkien should sue). Prince Noctis and his childhood friends-turned-bodyguards are planning to have the best road trip ever before he gets married and saves the world and all that. These lads are a Japanese schoolgirl's wet dream - carelessly handsome, unabashedly silly, and more concerned with the trendiness of their clothes than the gravitas of their destiny.

This is the highlight of Final Fantasy XV - the main cast is a bunch of sheltered dandies who have to come to terms with the greatness that has been thrust upon them. Their personal growth, their earnest moments of brotherhood, and their banter-laden interactions are the heart of the narrative. The hero isn't a po-faced paladin of justice - he's one of the guys. Watching him mature into a true king is quite the journey.

Final Fantasy XV also has one of the most beautifully rendered open worlds I've seen. It caused me to appreciate nature more, because real life looks a lot like Final Fantasy XV. And trust me, you spend about as much time driving in this game as you would in real life. The car, the Regalia, is the fifth main character. If there's one thing I could wish for, it would be that your control over the car wasn't so limited for most of the game. But even with its mostly autopilot navigation, sitting back and admiring the scenery while listening to music from past FF titles was quite the experience.

This open-world design continues for half the game, of which most of your time will be spent doing sidequests. I'm told I generally rush RPGs, but I definitely didn't rush Final Fantasy XV, because there's so much to do - and so much fun to be had doing it. It's enough to put the main story on the backburner, it is, what with all the games-within-a-game it offers. Fishing? Monster hunting? Pinball on steroids? This game has it. And with the game's reward mechanics, plus the promise of interesting conversations with the supporting cast, nearly every sidequest feels worth doing. Even if it's a blatant advertisement for Cup Noodles. Look, they had to get the budget to make this game look so beautiful somewhere, okay?

In an inversion of Final Fantasy XIII, the first half of XV is open-world and laden with sidequests, while the second half is linear. I know 'linearity' is a dirty word to a lot of gamers, but I can't complain about it in either of these games. Once the plot in Final Fantasy XV starts getting funneled towards its conclusion, it also becomes much more focused and much more heartrending. I was almost in tears in this game's campaign as many times as I've been with all the previous games I've played put together. And I commend the game's writing and directing team for being unafraid to commit to the tragedy, something quite a few Final Fantasy stories pull back from at the last moment. For its story alone, Final Fantasy XV is a triumph.

This game also marks a true departure from the Active Time Battle system of past Final Fantasies, something the series has been trying to break away from for over a decade. Finally, the series commits to real-time hack-and-slash combat. There's a wait mode, but it seems to simply be an accessibility option for handicapped players. The combat is a lot of fun. Once you get the hang of the dodge/parry mechanics, and can switch between defense and aggression on the fly, there's a lot of fun to be had, even if the camera sometimes obstructs your view when fighting large enemies.

While I encountered no major bugs during my playthrough, there is no hiding the fact that this is very much a game that spent ten years in development. Final Fantasy XV is hardly consistent, but then again, the Final Fantasy series as a whole isn't consistent. My favourite analogy to make is that if Dragon Quest is AC/DC, Final Fantasy is Guns N' Roses. It's large, unwieldy and all over the place, but if it's a series of very low lows (fuck FF XIII-2), it also has very high highs. Final Fantasy XV is a very high high. If Metal Gear Solid V hadn't come out, on release XV would have been the greatest unfinished game ever made. But it is finished now, with DLC episodes to fill in the blanks and show how adaptable the game engine is to different gameplay styles, and it goes on sale for a fiver. There is no better time to play this game than now.

Ultimately, Final Fantasy XV is a fantastic experience with a lot to do and even more to appreciate. Its emphasis on brotherhood reminded me of my own college clique. I oughta call those guys sometime.

This was the first of the Shantae games I had played way back in early-mid 2018, when I had been randomly compelled to try out the series and became her number one advocate for a Smash Bros. inclusion, which... :(... but oh well. I think this is easily the one everyone should start with, as it's not as frustrating as the first game, yet nowhere near the polish and style of the later entries. It's a valuable playthrough if you're hoping to get into the series yourself, but I wouldn't blame anyone for skipping it to play Pirate's Curse instead.

Admittedly, Risky's Revenge is not quite as good as I had remembered as a kid. Dungeons are all pretty bland in design, sluggish to traverse, and the world outside of those dungeons can be rather barren. Shantae herself doesn't control the best either, her hair attacks always carry the long windup and cooldown whether she's fully upgraded or not. It's not terrible, especially for being only her second (...third?) outing, but it's not easy to come back to after playing the rest of her series. I couldn't help but think about how much more I'd be enjoying Pirate's Curse or Half-Genie Hero throughout my playthrough.

i'll also admit that i tried to play the first game before this and gave up after a short while, so hey, Risky's Revenge is definitely a fine improvement.

Each time I play a Devil May Cry game, there’s this immense joy I feel. I don’t play hack’n’slashes often, but each time I do, for the most part at least, I absolutely adore them. Of course the same is true for Devil May Cry 4, it’s another amazing hack’n’slash. A lot of the changes and new additions to Devil May Cry 4 in particular are really good, but I do think it has some rough patches to it.

I adore Nero. As a character both writing-wise and playing as him, Nero is ridiculously fun. I think that’s primarily because of the Devil Bringer, I love being able to grab enemies and throw ‘em around. It also introduces some amazing segments of each chapter, I love how it becomes a sort of grappling hook. It’s a thing I’m a bit of a sucker for really. How you’re able to chain the Devil Bringer with Nero’s sword is really fun. And it makes combat super engaging to me. I’ll be honest though, there was something I knew that Nero could do, it looked like he was charging his sword, but I never really used it, and I don’t fully understand what it does. That though is assuredly on me.

And Dante is just as awesome as ever. It’s been a while since I played Devil May Cry 3, but I don’t think Dante has changed all too much. In fact, I think Devil May Cry 4 improves upon the one aspect that I didn’t care much for in DMC 3. Being able to switch styles on the fly by using the D-Pad was the only thing that Dante needed, and it made his abilities absolutely perfect. As well, I absolutely adore each weapon Dante gets throughout the game, though I didn’t utilize them much because I just think the sword is really fun.

The story’s pretty good. I wouldn’t say it’s as strong as DMC3’s but it’s still one that I really like. The villains throughout the game are really neat, though I wouldn’t say they’re super memorable. Unfortunately I think the same rings true for the main villain too, not memorable at all really. Even then, I think Dante and Nero are such strong characters that they absolutely carry the game, what they can do and the interactions between them and bosses are so captivating, they just rock.

When it comes to the levels of the game, I’m somewhat conflicted. I would say a majority of them are really good, but the few bad moments are really bad. I’m particularly reminded of Chapter 19. This of course isn’t the first boss rush of the series, I remember DMC3 had it at least, but this is probably my least favorite thus far. While it’s not a bad issue, I do think it’s a little annoying that for a good number of these bosses, you’re fighting them for the third time. It gets a little repetitive though it’s not terrible. My main issue is the moments between the boss fights, when you’re rolling the dice. I felt lucky to even get the correct rolls to pass through each section, but man, if I was even slightly less lucky, I could’ve been stuck there for so long.

As well, some of the bosses in the game I think are just generally underwhelming. One boss, which was fought around halfway through the game, was more annoying than anything else. Its main ability was just running away from the player, and it was more a nuisance than an actual challenge. As well, the boss in Chapter 18 was really boring. Yet again, it’s not bad, it’s not frustrating by any means, it’s just kind of boring. And honestly I was kind of hoping for more with the final boss. Presentation and Story wise, I think it’s fitting, but I wish the actual fight itself was something more. I think it’s because I’m comparing to how amazing the final boss of DMC3 was, and this game’s final boss just isn’t as good.

But still, Devil May Cry is such a fun series and DMC 4 is another example of how great these games are. As the series continues the combat really seems to get more and more polished, and DMC4 by far has the best gameplay I’ve played so far (keep in mind currently I’ve only played 1, 3 and 4). Nero has such a great introduction here, and I can’t wait to see more of him. Though, I don’t know when I’ll get around to actually playing DMC5. I’ve been absolutely adoring these games though.