Just another tremendous game in the series from Remedy, with a refocused tone, and a vision that seems more realized with a bigger budget and advanced technology. This one hurt, emotionally. There's so much to love (and hate) here, it's baked in atmosphere, full of humor, drama, surrealism, love, anger, hate, pain, and death. It's on the shorter side so I will definitely be replaying this game on a harder difficulty sooner than later. Probably stands as my favorite shooter of the Xbox / PS2 era, though I've not played too many, probably dethroning Halo: Combat Evolved.

A nice change-of-pace for the Like a Dragon franchise, it allows for a few almost entirely new combat styles that distinguish it from the rest, with a cool aesthetic and world. Sometimes, the more powerful enemies feel like sponges and the mechanics make it apparent that RGG are not experts in this style of combat, but for the most part it's quite fun. The story is a lot to handle, as is the case with most RGG games, and maybe if I had a better grasp of Japanese history it wouldn't be as convoluted. I also will say the familiar faces and voices were great, but they only served to hinder me in figuring out each character's role in the story and allegiances.

As close to a masterpiece that the PS3/Xbox 360 era has come, though of course I did play it on the PS4. It excels in all areas. The story is of course the highlight, and the characters are fantastic. There may never be another duo with as compelling a relationship as Joel and Ellie. Major props to Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, they stole the show, and completely made me forget I was controlling them. As someone who has trouble with even mild horror games, this game took some time and adjustment to get through, but it was well worth it. The combat is interesting and engaging, though occasionally it can feel a bit dated in AI or level design. The soundtrack, and score by Gustavo Santaollala are amazing, and enthrall you in the world. A harsh world with complex characters that hooked in even me, who never really plays games of this genre. Well done. I am 9 years too late, but now I've experienced it. Beautiful.

Another Bethesda Game Studios game that I had a tremendous amount of fun with. I think quality-wise, it's easily the best of BGS since Skyrim (even though the competition is only really only Fallout 4 and 76), and I think it might have the best main quest in a BGS game also. I think that the games biggest aspect of failure (if you can call it that) is that it was marketed as a game of the generation, but there are certain either design choices or limitations that hold the game back from being the perfect spacefaring game that gamers were set up to expect. It isn't a space simulator, and it was unfair of Bethesda to market it like that but also unfair of gamers to truly expect something like that from BGS. It has all the typical quirkiness of a Bethesda game, but with a fair bit more polish than usual. It also has an interesting New Game+ system that I have yet to delve into but seems enticing. There are so many different systems to this game to get into, and I found myself only scratching the surface of most of them. It feels very grand in scale in some aspects, but quite shallow in others. A lot of the charm of exploration in previous BGS titles was sacrificed for a broad range of planets and biomes, to complement a large resource management system that plays into research and base-building. My hope would be that Bethesda continues to support this game as they have FO76, which has definitely made major steps in the right direction over time. As for Starfield, the launch product is far superior to FO76, and FO4, and I think proper DLC support and perhaps live service content could make this game a continual Game Pass seller.

A game for the ages, a future classic, and one that only Remedy could have made. It's a love letter to everything Remedy, from Max Payne, to Control, Alan Wake 1, Sam Lake, their storytelling innovations, Quantum Break, James McCaffrey (RIP), horror games, and so much more.

I've never been one for horror games but this game does so much right (but is still extremely scary). There's so much to love about the storytelling, use of different mediums, and general creativity.

There's not too much more to say other than I (acknowledging recency bias) would happily declare this game a masterpiece.

A really nice shake-up to the formula after Yakuza 3, which felt a bit stale/dated in its combat and game design. I love Kiryu, but broadening the world and characters and seeing other perspectives was quite fun, and introduced some great characters, like Taiga Saejima. The four protagonists helped keep the gameplay fresh with different movesets, though it did make sometimes make for a fairly convoluted plot. Some bosses again were frustrating, like in 3. Overall though, I really enjoyed the new stories and the final collaboration, which was sick.

When I started playing Max Payne 3, I was wildly disappointed as I loved the first two and (for some reason) was expected a return to that noir and surrealistic tone, but was met by a brutal, harsh, action-centric perspective. It felt too much like Rockstar's other games, and made me feel upset at the loss of Remedy's distinct voice, but as the game went on I understood what the game was trying to be and began to fall in love with the intense and refined gameplay mechanics. Such a cool yet depressing game, after all, just like the first 2, but far different.

Nearly 100 hours later, I come away a changed person. I love Final Fantasy VII so much, and this game is a near-perfect retelling and remake of that game's middle act, culminating in one of the most iconic moments in gaming. I think the whole of FF7's story is one of my favorite pieces of fiction in any medium. There is so much fun to be had in this game, but also so much sadness and pain. This game does have some fairly generic open world checklist stuff, but it was engaging enough that I was compelled to do all of it. My biggest gripe with the game is probably that some of the minigames had frustrating balancing, but that's really minor overall. The ending, though I thought I was prepared, absolutely shattered me in a way that so few games ever have. So many beautiful moments honoring the original, or Crisis Core, or Remake, it's so wonderful for a huge fan of FF7. The music is all-time, the characters are all-time, the story is all-time, and the gameplay is actually a ton of fun. I don't think it would be any exaggeration to say the third game in the FF7 Remake series is any less than my most anticipated game of all time. I have zero doubt that when 2024 is done and gone, Rebirth will easily be my GOTY.