Sights & Sounds
- The art direction of this game is excellent; I love how the bold color palette allows the simplified geometry present in the character designs and environments to really pop. Despite the consistency, I never got bored of looking at the game in spite of multiple playthroughs
- I loved the music as well. The diversity in Night in the Woods's soundscape lends quite a helping hand to the complex and sometimes difficult themes the game addresses. You can hear a variety of musical influences mostly geared towards indie, alternative, and classic rock. Some favorites in particular included the Monster Magnet-esque stoner jam "Space Dragon" and the seemingly Motörhead-inspired "Pumpkin Head Guy"
- Having played bass for several years, I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on the sonic lower end. It's more than just roots and fifths!

Story & Vibes
- You play as Mae, a cat who's just returned home after dropping out of college for reasons she doesn't want to explain. Night in the Woods follows her story over the course of the following autumn season
- Thankfully, she's joined by her friends Gregg, Bea, and Angus (and a host of other wonderful side characters) to aid her with the struggles she faces in returning home
- I'm being intentionally vague with the story because it's such a great experience. If you've managed to avoid spoilers, please do yourself the favor of going in blind. Pretty much every aspect of the narrative was high quality, from the unpredictable wild ride of a plot to the masterful treatment of sensitive themes. There's so much more to depression that merely feeling sad, and Night in the Woods depicts those nuances poignantly and brutally
- It's not all negative energy, fortunately. Night in the Woods has a great sense of humor ("It's called body positivity, Bea, read the internet"). For every soul-crushing moment the game hits you with, there's at least 10 good laughs to follow to help lighten the mood
- I feel like I can't say enough about the characters in this game and how worth it talking to everyone is. Talk to everyone every chance you get, and explore to make sure you talk with everyone. Some of the best scenes in the game can only be experienced by investing time with more than just your core friend group

Playability & Replayability
- The central gameplay loop (with some day-to-day variation) in Night in the Woods goes something like: 1) Have a weird dream, 2) Wake up and talk to your mom, 3) Explore Possum Springs and talk to everyone you see, 4) Go to band practice and play a rhythm game, 5) Hang out with either Gregg or Bea, 6) Go home, talk to your dad, and go to bed
- Note how #5 says Bea OR Gregg. Hanging out with one of them will prevent you from hanging out with the other for that evening, so you'll need two playthroughs to see all the scenes. Don't worry, though, either choice is really good, but I'd maybe recommend hanging out with Gregg when you're given the option the first time if you plan to someday 100% the game
- I love the platforming elements here, especially the Mario-like triple jump. It's worth exploring Possum Springs' rooftops and power lines once access to them opens up. You'll miss out on a wealth of good content if you don't
- The rhythm game is a standout, but note that it can get really hard (particularly on the song Pumpkin Head Guy) if you're trying to play with a controller. I didn't feel like installing the game on my computer or connecting my keyboard to my Steam Deck, so I just mapped the face buttons to the shoulder buttons and let my Frequency/Amplitude muscle memory guide me
- There's lots of other little mini games (some of them recurring). I liked the variety and dose of silliness these injected into my playthroughs
- Normally, I wouldn't really consider 100%ing a story game that requires multiple playthroughs. Luckily, all of the side content is optional, so you can just power through the main story and see the Gregg/Bea scenes you missed in the first one. In all, getting all the achievements requires two full playthroughs and two partial playthroughs

Overall Impressions & Performance
- I first played through this title in 2017 not long after it released, and I always knew I'd want to return to it again. The writing was so good and the characters so memorable that I knew I'd wind up fully completing it someday
- If you've ever struggled with issues of confidence or identity or faced an uphill battle against anxiety or depression, Night in the Woods will likely resonate with you. Even though I can't relate entirely to Mae (I'm not a homebound, self-destructive, bisexual, college-dropout. Or a cat), the game managed to strike a chord. Several, really. I recognize my bias will show in my rating, but I connected to the story in a way I didn't expect
- Aside from the rhythm game being sometimes difficult on one or two songs when using a controller, the game is a great Steam Deck title

Final Verdict
- 10/10. If you only ever play one game about animals dealing with personal problems, be sure it's Night in the Woods

The Last Guardian is a concept game where you solve puzzles by interacting with an alien and apathetic environment.

I think a game should be fun to interact with. Any time a game is not fun to interact with, the payoff needs to be exceptionally exquisite. For me, the cinematic, emergent moments of this game were not worth the unresponsive camera, terrible controls, badly signaled interactibles, and constant button prompts. I'm glad that experiments like this exist so that they can later be turned into games, but I can't enjoy the prototype.

Resident Evil 7 is one of the best games in the series, the idea that the game was a return to form for the franchise has been done to death, what’s more interesting is everything it did differently.

A new tone and art style, Resident Evil 7 is grounded in a way the games before it never even attempted, the art direction makes the horror scarier and the zanier parts more surreal, the perfect balance between true scares and pure camp that few games have ever managed.

A setting that will stick in my mind forever, Resident Evil 7 is the perfect blend of classic Resident Evil and 2010s pop horror games.

Maybe I’m in the minority but I actually really like Sonic superstars do I think it’s perfect NO but for what it is it’s just fun I like all the new ideas they brought aboard, Trip is really fun and cute character, the levels are actually pretty imaginative and the visuals aren’t half bad. The most glaring issues are the price first and foremost it’s way too high for the amount of stuff there is in it maybe 30 or even 40 dollars would’ve been more worth it. The bosses are straight cheeks there is no two ways about it I hate how they can only be hit at certain times and you aren’t able to sneak in more hits unlike games like Mania or SK3. The most surprising part was the Music the music it was disappointing all the stuff by Tee Lopes was great like always but man Jun Senoue’s stuff was just really meh at best and bad at worse which is surprising since even in the worse of sonic games the music was always high quality. Recommend picking it up on sale if you’re interested.

If this is the direction the Sonic series is going, then I'm pretty excited. I beat the game as Sonic, and I enjoyed (almost) every moment of it. I heard a lot of mediocre-bad things about it, so my expectations weren't very high, but I'm glad the game delivered on a fun sonic experience. My main problems lie in the music, specifically for the boss fights of every zone. I just didn't like it. Also there's a spike in difficulty at the final boss fight. It honestly had me questioning if I was bad at video games. Other than that, it was great all the way through.

A brand new 2D Sonic that is a really solid follow up to Mania. Superstars plays exactly like how you would expect a 2D Sonic to play. All the satisfying momentum and great level design you know from Sonic 2, 3 and Mania are here. The most drastic change here is that the graphics now use 3D over 2D sprites. To some this is a downgrade, however the models and artstyle is really well done and charming, I see it as a nice alternative instead of a downgrade. The biggest detriment here is the music is honestly nothing special. For a Sonic game, that is usually a big flaw and for me takes this an entire point down. Other than that, Superstars doesn't do much besides coop to differentiate itself from the other titles. It's just another really well made 2D Sonic game with all original zones, as opposed to Mania where only half of it was original zones. Any fan of Sonic should try this one.

Straight-up, I did NOT have a good time with this game. Let's start off with some positives. The soundtrack is great, which is to be expected from almost any Star Wars product. Along with the wealth of enemy types and geographies, the music heavily contributed to the atmosphere. Graphically, it can be very impressive, particularly when showcasing the awesome landscapes and vistas. It made me feel like I should be watching a Fallen Order movie. The story and characters aren't all that deep, but they get the job done and keep things moving along. Cal is a likable protagonist that I would not mind seeing crossover into other media in the franchise. The additional lore and data entries are very detailed and are entirely optional, thankfully not crammed down your throat to disrupt the pace. Finally, the perk tree also does a good job of providing clear progression in combat with unique abilities and skills. Though it does take significant time to build up, you spend the first several hours with almost no tools. I would also have liked to be able to specialise in certain skills like Force or survival, but that may be leaning a little too much towards an RPG, which this is not.



Now to take a huge dump on this game. This is, to my knowledge, my first 'Souls-like' game. So certain problems could be attributed to my lack of experience in the genre, having unrealistic impressions and just needing to "get good". I have tried to consider this when writing up my thoughts. Firstly, for how pretty the game is, it is plagued by graphical errors and performance issues. Textures not loading properly, and frame drops, freezes, and long loading times. I like Bethesda RPG's, so I can ALMOST overlook these issues. Even when the game is trying to show off how great it looks. The map fucking sucks, I could barely comprehend it. I'm not a fan of respawning enemies as I like the satisfaction of fighting all the enemies and clearing as many areas as I can. It leads to me wanting to avoid fights if possible, to not waste my time and health. Some of the boss fights, particularly lightsaber duels, really suck. They are so linear in how they are supposed to be tackled, which is not immediately obvious, meaning I am forced to play in a way I do not find fun (mostly by using the parry system, I prefer dodging). There's even a boss who can block your force attacks, which was infuriating.



All of these issues are nothing when compared to the implementation of save points, exploration and traversal. Whoever decided where to place some of these savepoints must have been blind-drunk or evil. Sometimes they drop like candy, other times they don't appear for moons, and others seem placed explicitly to waste the player's time. Initially, exploration in this game is really fun, with new areas opening up after progressing through the story. However, the incentive for this exploration is almost nonexistent. Additional exp from echoes, aesthetic rewards and the occasional health or force boost. This realisation was pretty disappointing. The game really could have used a crafting system. Letting Cal use resources gathered from the different planets to craft consumables and throwables could have added some much-needed reward to exploration as well as flair for combat. Traversal is easily the biggest misstep in this game and the cause of many of my frustrations. For such a huge element of the game, how it could be such an unpolished, unoptimised piece of shit is beyond me. Additionally, what you can and cannot traverse is communicated extremely poorly. Fallen Order is essentially built on traversal and the foundation is made of a Cadbury Flake. What a huge disappointment. Fucking up a MAJOR mechanic like this just left a sour taste in my mouth for almost the entire experience.