Deliver Us The Moon is yet another narrative adventure game taking place in an abandoned space/research station. It even has puzzles and a robot sidekick. I feel bad for ragging on this game too much but there really just isnt an original bone in its body. If i wasn't compelled to platinum it I dont think I would of played long. I can commend the puzzles for being a bit more grounded than usual in this type of game and pretty enjoyable for the most part, plus theres a few fun setpieces. The game just isnt really memorable. Perhaps a 3/5 is a bit too high, but i really think the game is just okay. The story was interesting but the whole learning everything from watching holograms and listening to audio logs/reading files approach makes it very unengaging. Plus some bad lag spikes when autosaving. If you like space games you'll probably get more out of this than I did. It does have a sequel coming early next year, and I think ill try it out. There's potential.

Trophy Completion - 100% (Platinum #206)
Time Played - 6 hours 45 minutes
Nancymeter - 58/100
Game Completion #100 of 2022
August completion #20

This game is cheap, and looks the part too. What's underneath that veneer, though, is an incredibly engaging loop that blends auto-games like Cookie Clicker and autobattlers with the action-roguelike genre. From this recipe you get a game that technically sports sessions of 10 minutes, but will often have you playing "one more round" for hours.

The game is in early access, but already provides plenty of content for you to enjoy. Much of this added content reveals itself as surprises for completing special achievements, which further adds to the hooky nature of the game loop. Every time, you wonder if you get new toys to play with.

Will I remember this game at the end of this year? I don't know. Maybe. For now, though, I am definitely getting my money's worth.

You can always count on Mario to deliver.

In Mario Odyssey, Nintendo shows once again that it is the king of incremental design: take a tried and true format and augment it by focusing on one or two things, which you develop to perfection.

The two mechanics that carry this game to greatness are its exquisite movement controls and its focus on opt-in goals. Everything in Odyssey is designed to be smooth: Both in how you control Mario and the goals you are presented with to encourage you to explore the depths of the movement system. None of Odyssey's levels are linear. In fact, they are intentionally designed to beg you to try and find or make shortcuts, lacing jumps you can just about make inbetween the various Moons that are this game's overarching McGuffin. Sometimes, you don't even need a moon to enjoy testing your limits: Mario is just so fun to control that just doing a cool jump, or exploring a difficult to reach section of the level is reward by its own merit. Don't worry though, I have never experienced a moment where my effort in reaching a tough spot were not reward with a moon, some coins or an interesting view or character to talk to.

This sense of freedom, both in movement and objective, is where Odyssey truly develops its adventurous spirit: Who knows what you'll pull off next, or where the next Moon might be hiding? What cool creatures can you morph into using your magic hat (haven't even gotten to this!)? What gorgeous setting will this new level present to you? While I didn't feel the need to keep playing after beating the final level, I was thoroughly absorbed all the way through to that point. The fact that I can return to each level and be confident that there will be new adventures to be had, means I am happy to keep this game in my collection.

Who says you can't go back after your Odyssey has been completed?

Elden Ring is the culmination of the amazing systems- and leveldesign that From Software has made their fame with. Elden Ring is not a game that I believe pays back the amount of time and frustration it asks of me.

Now before you accuse me of being a contrarian for the sake of it, let me explain. I am not saying Elden Ring is a bad game, far from it. It is an amazing experiment and truly a work of great skill and design. I just think the game wants to do too many things at once, and, as someone not entirely familiar with Souls-games, that confusion had an effect on me as the player.

Elden Ring wants to be an open-world with free-form exploration of both your environment and your favorite way to dispatch the enemies ahead of you. Elden Ring also wants to be a punishing game that demands precision and determination. On top of that, it wands to build a new universe divergent from the now-familiar setting type of the Dark Souls trilogy. In attempting to be all of these, I believe it succeeds only in the exploration pillar - and by that I mean only the exploring of the world.

Why is that? Well, to put it simply - Elden Ring makes me feel like I play the game wrong. Whenever I engage in the exploration side of the game, I let myself wander and stumble into new wondrous places that I want to see every nook and cranny of - only to be met with a boss or enemy that I either have no trouble with at all, or I am underleveled for. Whenever I engage with the pleasure-through-overcoming side of the game, I buckle down for a hard fight, but have to grapple with janky lock-on systems or cheesy boss designs with input tracking and long combos. When I want to engage with Elden Ring's story or setting, I am left wondering why I do not care for the stories behind the large ruins that litter the games' landscapes. Don't get me wrong - I am fully aware that I have only played 20 hours of this game and that this game has much more world and gameplay to offer beyond this point. I just feel like 20 hours is plenty of time for a game to prove itself, and Elden Ring didn't.

Elden Ring is a grand experiment that ends in confusion for me, personally. I am happy that everyone derived so much enjoyment from this game, and that the game's open world design will inspire many other in the future. But when a game expects you to look up in wonder at your surroundings, yet makes you feel like you want to look up a guide online, I believe that sense of wonder is lost. At least for me, anyway.