Truly one of the best games to have ever been released from Playstation in a long time when it first came out on the PS4 in 2020 and I was so beyond happy that the game finally came to PC. This time, for my second playthrough of the game, I decided to keep on the Japanese dub but this time play the game in the Kurosawa filter, and oh my god man when I tell you it felt like a whole new way to experience the game like that. I simply can't get over how amazing this game is and the beauty of it's story and themes, Sucker Punch truly knocked it out of the park with this. I also got to experience the Iki Island DLC for the first time and I gotta say, damn, this DLC was an absolute blast to play through in many aspects, I can't believe it took me till now to finally play it!

If you haven't played Ghost of Tsushima, or you have your reservations about it for whatever reason (open world, PlayStation title, etc.), then you seriously need to get on this game already or at least try it out because it is def one of my all-time favorite games and it's an exceptional open world adventure.

Hellblade II was truly an excellent game imo, it doesn't quite match up to the effectiveness of the story and message of the first Hellblade, but this game tells its own new beautiful story that utilizes a different aspect of Norse mythology. The gameplay itself is relatively the same as the first game with combat and puzzles, but combat in this game definitely feels a touch more difficult (the window for parries are a lot more tighter), but it also feels just right for realism, which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea but it works for a game like this. One other little nitpick I have is the new lore collection that you need to find behind faces in the environment. I feel like this was a bit tedious because I had to carefully look for anything that resembled a face along the walls of the environment which is a bit of a problem considering you are in an entirely mountainous and rocky region where just about anything could look like a face or the faces could blend in (granted, I played with my brightness a little too low so maybe that might have impacted my ability to find the faces, so take this with a grain of salt, but it still felt tedious to look around and find them). However, one thing I really loved about this game was how it presented puzzles as it felt really creative and gorgeous to work through.

Regardless of that one little nitpick though and the different type of story from the first game, this was truly an amazing story and I really loved what it was trying to tell. If you played the first Hellblade you will definitely see that this game is different from the first, but I would recommend it nonetheless. Really hope Xbox doesn't close Ninja Theory for making something wonderful like they did with Tango Gameworks.

ZAU was an absolutely breathtaking game that told a beautiful story of loss and acceptance. The characters, the environments, the music, it was all truly amazing to play through and I couldn't help but not love the story it told which wasn't only about the main character, but of the side characters as well. However, although the game does have great gameplay, there are parts of it that fall short. For one, there is barely any backtracking present in a game that is stylized as a metroidvania, and I feel that the game truly fell short by not utilizing backtracking with all of the cool abilities you get in this game. Not only that, but overall level design felt mostly linear, although there were some points of interconnectivity in the overall map. And one last thing I will say is that the PC version of the game might be a little buggy in terms of controlling the character because there were various points where Zau stood completely still even though I was pressing for him to move. This mostly happened whenever I finished looking at the map and went back to gameplay, but there were some other points during mid-combat where Zau suddenly wouldn't move and that allowed enemies to get hits on me. Regardless of these small nitpicks and some of the buggy controls, none of it really hindered my enjoyment of this game and I knew I was gonna love it the moment I watched it's debut trailer at the Game Awards last year. I truly hope the creator and the studio learn from this game and go on to create other wonderful works of art.

This was a pretty fun game that had a lot of fun and entertaining features with all the transformations! It's very clear who the target audience for this game is though just based on the difficulty alone and how simple it can be. However, I do gotta mention how this game can be a bit of a mess graphically because the Switch really struggles to get this playing at a smooth framerate, even when the Switch is docked (in fact it got worse for me when I played it handheld). Either way though, I had the most fun with it when Peach got her transformations, but I do kinda wish Nintendo kept some of them secret for surprise transformations. So if you wanna enjoy yourself a fun little Peach game with a breeze then go ahead and play it!

This was a pretty fun metroidvania to play, albeit it was definitely a lengthy one where I got a total playtime of 41 hours, but I would say it was definitely worth it for the amount of content that it provides to the player. If I had to point out a major positive, and my most favorite part of this game, it's the puzzles and how you can interact with them. Everything feels incredibly well designed and not just tailored to one single power up you get in the game, the game itself encourages you to think critically. However, there are a couple of downsides that I found with the game, which was the overall soundtrack in the game, and the fact that it's a bit of a grindy game if you're doing 100%. The soundtrack mostly feels lackluster during gameplay, and it does have some epic themes during cutscenes but if I'm exploring a world then I need music that encourages me and gives me motivation, not ambience (although I guess I can't ask for something along the lines of a Metroid soundtrack for a Prince of Persia game, but still). As for the grindy nature, which again this is because I did a 100% playthrough for my first run, it definitely feels like an aspect of the game that got me really frustrated, because the game offers so much customization to you (which isn't bad), but in order to get those customizables you really need to farm for currency in order to pay for the large amount of stuff that's offered, and that can get REAL tedious (I spent around 5-6 hours just farming time crystals to get most of the remaining amulets by the end of the game). Overall, I'd say that this Prince of Persia game was an absolute success and I really enjoyed my time with it, even if it took a little bit for me to get into it. I would absolutely love to see the series go forward in a metroidvania style, because it's clear that it is a wildly successful model in both game design and commercially. Definitely give the game a try if you enjoy games like Metroid Dread and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night!

Undoubtedly one of my favorite games of recent years, I'm bummed I didn't play it when it came out in 2023 but I was being a bit stubborn in getting it and I was frustrated with it being an Epic Games exclusive. But holy shit dude this game exceeds everything Remedy has done to this point, especially with the first Alan Wake. This game truly does feel like they put in some of the best aspects of survival horror while they kept it in line with aspects of Alan Wake, I absolutely love it. Gameplay is so interesting by providing two different perspectives throughout the game and what they can do that it feels refreshing going back and forth between Alan Wake and Saga Anderson. And the music, oh man the music, the Old Gods of Asgard certainly had a hit in Alan Wake, but in Alan Wake 2 it feels like they're cranked up to 11 and they just spit out banger after banger, it's just so awesome. I couldn't recommend this game enough and honestly it's feeling like it might be heading into my top 5 games, definitely give this game a try if you like survival horror.

This was an absolutely beautiful game and I'm so glad I was able to experience its story for the first time with this remake. I remember that my brother had the original Another Code (Trace Memory) for the Nintendo DS when I was much younger and I always wanted to try it out, but I never got the chance. The game's story is absolutely amazing and had me hooked throughout most of it (the beginning of the second story did lose me a little, but I eventually fell right back into it). The puzzles and gameplay are pretty simple, which ofc I'm pretty sure they're meant to be like that for younger players, but it was still entertaining and fun to do. My only real critique is with the camera's controls being very slow, but I can understand the decision to make them like that so the player doesn't miss key details. Overall, I love this game. It was a beautiful story and I'd def like to play it again some day.

This is a fantastic remake to a game I always loved playing on the PSP. It makes me happy to see a bunch of improvements to the gameplay style with the new FF7R game mechanics and combat. Nice little touch ups here and there really make FF7CC fun to play through again, especially with some new missions and some side content. The remixed music is pretty nice, but some charm does feel like it was lost along the process. I do also really enjoy that they kept the original CGI cutscenes from the game, it felt very nostalgic to see them again versus new cutscenes. However, one thing I'm gonna say is that I'm not really happy with the new voice acting. Characters voices are often overacted imo (especially Zack's VA), but I won't say that it diminishes the experience, it's just very jarring at first really.

Without a doubt one of my most favorite RPGs I've ever played. I wouldn't consider myself much of an RPG guy, but there was something about this game that really contained so much magic and charm that it really made me fall in love with it. I do also tend to over level in these types of games, but doing that didn't necessarily trivialize anything and the final boss was still a little bit difficult for me to the point that I had to carefully think about what to do next.

I've never really played the original Super Mario RPG on the SNES, so I can't really vouch for how faithful the remake is in comparison, but I will say that this game had such an amazing charm to it and the parts that I did recognize from seeing random clips of the OG looked pretty accurate. The modern soundtrack is absolutely amazing and def has some bangers in it, I can't wait to play through the game again with the classic soundtrack at some point. I highly recommend getting the game, even if RPGs aren't your thing!

It's a great collection of the original Metal Gear saga that Kojima intended to release back when he worked on the series. The collection has a lot within it such as the screenplays, master books, and it contains up to 10 games so I do believe that this collection is a good deal for $59.99. Now that being said, there are maybe a couple minor issues such as no borderless window option and small audio issues. I don't care about complaints that people have about no 4K or high tech stuff like that because that's just asking for stuff that'll mess these games up. I'd def recommend getting the collection if you've never played Metal Gear before, it's one of my all-time favorite game series. Thank you for creating these games, Hideo Kojima.

A fantastic game that adds on to the lore of Silent Hill that started with the first game. I played Silent Hill 1 last year and it felt necessary to continue that trend this year for Halloween. The game has an amazing atmosphere and a killer soundtrack that can either really crawl up your skin or give you amazing chill vibes (mostly the former though). Gameplay is pretty fun, although I will say that sometimes the monsters can be a little cheap by knocking you down and it takes a full minute for Heather to get up, I mostly tried to keep my distance but in the chance they did get close they knocked the wind right out of me. Either way, this was a really fun game and definitely a certified Silent Hill classic like the previous couple of games made by Team Silent.

I love Hellboy so much and I was looking forward to it so much ever since it was first announced last year in December. It's really just a fun roguelike game that makes me feel like I'm playing Punch-Out at the same time. The story also feels very interesting and like a typical Hellboy side-story which are always nice to see. I will admit though, there are certain parts of this game that feel a little tedious, running around maps is definitely the top issue for me. Either way, this game was hella fun and I never expected to see Hellboy and a rogue-like mixed together, but it's a pretty good combination and the team did a great job.

Pikmin was one of my favorite games to play on the Gamecube when I was a little kid, but I could never bring myself to actually completing the game (probably because I was a kid lol). I'm so happy that Nintendo actually ported these games to the Nintendo Switch because it finally gave me a chance to beat the game and experience so much fun by thinking of different strategies and prioritizing which parts to get first. I might have done a little save scumming here and there, but screw it I loved planning things out and seeing how they turned out differently. Again, I'm really glad I got to play this game again on modern hardware, it was such a blast and I can't wait to get to the other games.