I am kind of reluctant to give Elden Ring a rating, because I put it down for ages and only finally picked it up again over the past week, when I was already at the tail end of the game. I'll give some scattered thoughts though.

Putting Elden Ring down for so long meant that after having played most of the game a long time ago, I picked it up and basically did a boss run which included all of the most difficult bosses that the game has to offer. In some ways doing that kind of soured it in a way that one long and focused playthrough might not have, just because the experience of actually exploring the world itself would have been much fresher on my mind.

Elden Ring is definitely not a perfect game. I'm really not that huge on some of its boss design, some of it comes across like FromSoft were just extremely eager to top themselves on the difficulty front, and were less interested in designing a boss that is actually fun to fight. Difficult bosses are all well and good, but some of these fights are just tedious, to the point that they might actually prevent me from ever wanting to pick it up again. Oh, and there are also a lot of recycled bosses in Elden Ring, which kind of serve to undermine the initial fights you had with them.

FromSoft's tendancy for designing cryptic quests that require walkthroughs is also starting to get on my nerves. I'd like to spend more time actually playing the game, over watching a walkthrough on youtube every time I want to make some progress. This wasn't as annoying in Dark Souls, just by virtue of the fact that it wasn't a huge, sprawling open world game where the problem becomes much more abundant.

After airing my grievences though, I do have to make it completely clear, Elden Ring at its best is one of the most atmospheric, beautiful and engrossing video games I have ever played.

On the flipside of the cryptic quests, FromSoft never shoves the stories or the lore of their games down your throat, making you actively seek out answers if you really want to understand their games, and Elden Ring's world is so engrossing that it's very immersive and satisfying to discover it yourself.

I bought and played it when it came out, but I didn't finish it at the time. After having played a few other games in the series, I decided to start it again with some experience under my belt, and I had a much easier time. Somehow I had sunk over 7 hours into the game last time I played it, but when I got to that point this time around I hadn't even played it for 4 hours. I don't know what the fuck I was doing.

Close to my favourite out of what I have played though, it's either this or Prime. Samus is just such a joy to control in Dread, and I found that while it was pretty challenging, I never felt it was too unfair.

Finally beat Tears of the Kingdom after playing it on and off since May. I sunk over 140 hours into it.

It's Basically Breath of the Wild, but even better (and BotW is one of my favourite games). I really don't understand how people complained about the map (which has been added to and rearanged in plenty of way) and the reuse of assets, when neither are new things in the Zelda franchise. Majora's Mask is basically Ocarina of Time (in terms or gameplay) but with some new mechanics to keep it fresh, and this is not so different in that regard.

The new abilities were so much fun, they made exploring the world and solving puzzles an entirely different experience to what I had with Breath of the Wild.

Still holds up fairly well, but suffers from the non-platforming levels being generally unfun, a lot of them are outright bullshit in fact.

The racing segments in particular stand out as being outright bad, I'd like to meet the guy who thought that having the other cars be much faster and capable of stealing nitrus from you was a good idea. Not really a fan of the turret sections either, trial and error at the expense of lives is never fun.

The platforming is very fun though, and it feels great to play despite its age. Occasionally I would find that Sly would ignore me pressing the circle button though.

Firstly, and this is kind of a hot take, but I would actually prefer to play DmC over DMC1. The combat in DmC is actually quite fun; it feels great to play and wacking shit in it is very statisying. A majority of the missions were actually enjoyable enough to look at too, plus the segments in between combat are actually better than they are in most of the DMC games in general. DMC1 didn't really have either of these things going for it in my opinion.

I can also see how Capcom took some of the things that worked about this game and applied them to DMC5. DMC5 is obviously the superior game, but I think sometimes some of the things this game brought to the table are somewhat underestimated.

Now on to what is wrong with this game. While the combat is fun, some enemies here get in the way of that. I hate having to kill an enemy with a particular weapon, it limits creativity and it messes with the flow of combat that is at its best when it is fast paced. The lock on (which was added in the definitive version of the game) isn't perfect either, often it would randomly lock onto a different enemy while I was in the middle of pulling off a combo on another. The majority of the bosses here are also more about spectacle than challenge, which can make them a bit of bore (I actually like Vergil's boss fight though, even though Vergil in this game is fucking lame).

The worst part about this game is easily the writing though (Alex Garland of Ex Machina and Annihilation fame was the story supervisor on this game). Everything about the story and its characters ranges from annoying to cringe enducing; I don't think I've ever seen a game try so hard to be cool, but fail so spectacularly.

I wasn't a Nintendo kid growing up, and platformers used to bore me, which means that as a result I haven't ever really been a big Mario guy. Not playing at least one Mario game as someone who now owns a Switch and loves single player games is kind of sacreligious though, so I gave Super Mario World a shot.

I'll be honest, it was fun enough, but I didn't love it. I'm not huge on being made to find the secret exits in these levels, and I found the haunted mansions to be particularly annoying to play through. From what I have heard Star World offers a lot of unique level design (I only went there the one time), but I more or less just tried to go straight to Bowser, and that might have been detrimental to my enjoyment of the game because the levels started to feel a bit repetitive to me.

I'm glad I played it though, and I don't think it'll be my last Mario.

I blasted through Devil May Cry 5, beating it in 7 hours, 5 hours less than it took for me to beat 4. It also literally never dragged, in fact it flew by.

I really like what they did with Nero's character in this game. I never felt like I got extremely comfortable with his move set (Dante's is just so ingrained in me after 3), but I still had fun playing as him. I'd say he never got stale either, unlike in 4.

V is an interesting character, in terms of the story and gameplay. I actually liked his character, and I found the concept of the way he works in combat to be pretty interesting, even though the actual combat itself isn't always as interesting as it could be. I wouldn't say it was bad, on Devil Hunter difficulty combat encounters don't go for long enough for them to become too tedious, although I could definitely see his missions becoming a bit of a chore on higher difficulties.

Dante is fucking awesome. He has become one of my favourite video game characters to play as, and as I mentioned before, I have become really comfortable with his move set and I love switching weapons and styles on the fly. In DMC5 he feels better to play as than ever, and it makes me want a Devil May Cry remake where I can play as this Dante, but for a full game (although there would obviously be no Sin Devil Trigger).

Devil May Cry 5 also easily has the best soundtrack out of every Devil May Cry in my opinion. I think the combat themes got a bit repetitive in each of the other games, but having 3 really different themes for each of the playable characters (not including Vergil's, which is awesome btw) makes a huge difference, and each theme made me really excited to kill demons.

I am going to have to play this again and again. I want to actually get as good as possible, plus I need to play as Vergil.

Fun for a good chunk of it, but very tedious and frustrating by the end. I couldn't believe after beating a bunch of bosses a second time as Dante, that I had to then fight 4 of those bosses again as Nero. DMC1 had repeating bosses, but at least in that game the fights would change in some way, this game makes you fight 4 of its bosses 3 times and doesn't change anything about them. Was kind of willing to forgive it a bit with Dante, it was annoying but at least you had a different move set which made you take a new approach. The third time was just fucking annoying and tedious, especially when you are forced to role dice in order to progress.

On that note, DMC4 has fun combat (for the most part, some of these enemies feel like they exist for the purpose of annoying the fuck out of you), but the areas in between fights can be extremely frustrating. I hated some of Nero's grappling hook sections so much.

I think all of this is thanks to the fact that this game was famously rushed out, leaving the second half in particular feeling unfinished. Dante's missions lack the context and build up that Nero's have (it cuts from him watching the saviour invade the city, to him abruptly at the end of one of Nero's missions....for some reason). It is very obvious the original idea was to give Dante something better to do.

I'll be honest, DMC4 is not a bad game, but by the last couple of missions I was just desperate for the game to end so I could move on, and I'd be hesitant to play it again thanks to how frustrated it made me.

Here are my condensed thoughts on each of the first 3 DMC games:

Devil May Cry

Shows its age, and I would be lying if I said I had fun for the entirety of the 4 or so hours spent playing it, in fact it was something of a sprint to the finish. DMC1 also doesn't really take much time to explain its mechanics to you, plus the combat just didn't feel good enough to push me into trying to experiment with it a whole lot. DMC1 is the progenitor of a genre of video games, but it is obvious that the genre had a ways to go before it would reach its heights; it's a game I respect, but really do not enjoy playing. Glad to have beaten it at least once, and I also think it is a game that anyone who is interested in DMC or just PS2 games in general should at least try.

Rating: 5/10

Devil May Cry 2

Only played through Dante's missions, that was all I could really stomach. Sometimes confusing, always boring level design. No challenge, dumbed down mechanics, boring characters, boring world design, massive and empty maps...the list goes on and on. Has to be close to the worst video game sequel of all time, particularly as it is a sequel to an acclaimed and well loved game (even if I didn't love it myself).

Rating: 2/10

Devil May Cry 3

The game where everything comes together. I would say it was worth playing the first two just to get to this one and appreciate how much of a giant leap forward it was for the franchise, and for how it laid the foundation for the other games that would follow in its footsteps. Literally a genre defining masterpiece, and it has to be one of the best PS2 games, which is saying a lot because that console's library was stacked with good games.

Rating: 9/10

I had always heard about how bad Devil May Cry 2 is. In fact, I actually had some first hand experience with it. I watched some friends play it in primary school, and I think I actually picked up the controller at one point. We all got bored of it, and I actually remember thinking that the way the game played was pretty off, because we had played a little bit of the first and the third in the same day. Years later, I've come back to it to see if it is really as bad as they say. The fact that is has such a low rating on here in particular really caught my attention, like I knew people didn't like this game, but a 1.6...that is low. So I booted it up, with my expectations low and...my God, I fucking HATE this game.

I didn't intend to play all the way through it at first, but I eventually forced myself to (as Dante at least). I got to the stage where I thought that I had already wasted more than and hour on it, so I might as well commit to it. Who knew that what sounds like a brisk 3 hours and 24 minutes could feel so long.

I can't believe an actual studio made this, and that this is a sequel to a succesful and critically lauded game. Don't get me wrong, it isn't like there haven't been any bad sequels to good games over the years, but I'm not sure if any sequel from a big studio (from the past two decades at least) comes close to being this bad.

This game is fucking braindead. It is mostly devoid of challenge, and whenever there is a challenge it is practically never fair. The level design is confusing and maps are often way too big for their own good (not to mention empty and really dull to look at), and as a sequel not only does it not do enough to build on the mechanics of the previous game, it actually strips them down and regresses them in lots of ways. You only need to hold down the square button and most enemies will be evicorated before they have a chance to hit you (if they actually decide to hit you, which they don't always do), yes that's right, in this sequel to a game with an emphasis on combat, all you need to do for most encounters is hold down a single button. Melee weapons are all swords with the same limited moveset, and the upgrades pretty much only go as far as making your weapons do slightly more damage and you can go the whole game without so much as upgrading a single thing. The level design is confusing and clearly unfinished, each mission feels like it was the bare minimum they could do to get the game out the door, the fact that most of this game's actual development took place over the course of 4 months is telling. That's all just scratching the surface when it comes to the list of things that are wrong with Devil May Cry 2.

I don't usually play games like this for the story, I really don't expect it to be amazing and I don't care as long as what surronds it is good gameplay, but Devil May Cry 2 has neither of these things. I know next to nothing about these character's motivations (or lack their of, in Dante's case), the game has told me nothing about the world (as far as I can tell nobody lives on this planet outside of Dante, Lucia, the old woman and the evil guy), and generally speaking I have next to no idea why any of what happens actually happens. It is the epitome of complete nonsense.

Oh, and fuck the final boss. Put the heads of each of the bosses of this game and a couple from the last in a circle so you can't dodge without being hit by a different projectile, give them moves that really aren't designed for this fight in particular, and also make it so that Dante won't lock onto them unless he is standing directly in front of them, making him vulnerable to attacks that he mostly can't avoid. I do not think I have ever fought a more tedious, boring and completely uninspired boss in my life (maybe that fucking helicopter), and this is in a game that is filled to the brim with boring and uninspired bosses.

If one good thing comes out of Devil May Cry 2, it will be that beating it will enhance my appreciation of Devil May Cry 3.

I think a lot of people would take offence if I told them the first Devil May Cry has aged badly, but I really think it has. Before I go too far though, it is important for me to point out that I respect what it is, particularly as it pretty much started its own genre of video games. Plus, I don't want to give the impression that the game is always bad, the combat can be pretty fun.

The fact that Devil May Cry was originally designed as a Resident Evil game is extremely obvious though, and I really don't think fast paced action alongside old school RE fixed camera angles gel well at all. It isn't particularly fun to not be able to see what you are fighting or what you are being hit by, in fact it is incredibly frustrating.

Devil May Cry also retains locked doors and keys for said locked doors, except it is much more simple than an RE game because the path is always straight forward, which kind of makes the act of finding a key item to unlock a door a bit repetitive. Yes, DMC has what is essentially a Resident Evil mansion with interconnected level design, but it doesn't really take advantage of it in the same way Resident Evil does. It's more just there because they started making a Resident Evil game and they couldn't exactly just undo all of the work they had already done when they realised they were going to be making something else.

Hideki Kamiya's desire to make a game that was very diverse is commendable, but also brings on a plethora of problems. Occassionally the game decides that is is going to be a rail shooter with inverted controls, sometimes a platformer with jumping that is very imprecise, and then during the climactic boss fight you are suddenly playing something that is almost akin to Star Fox. Devil May Cry isn't a game that is designed around being a rail shooter, a platformer or Star Fox, and I found playing through these sections to be pretty painful. Thankfully it does stick to its own lain for the most part, but for the love I God, I wish it would just stay there.

It isn't that the game is extremely challenging (the only boss that gave me trouble was Mundus), it's more just extremely frustrating. I don't see myself picking it up again, but I am glad to have beaten it at least once. I may see how shit DMC2 actually is, then jump straight onto DMC3, which I am very excited for. I have no doubt that I will be more impressed by the latter installments (outside of 2).

To be entirely honest, if you know what you are getting yourself into Dark Souls isn't that difficult, particulary when compared to some other From Soft games. It is challenging of course, but I didn't really struggle a whole lot with most of the bosses, in fact with the exception of a few, I beat a lot of them on my first try, and I'm not saying that to brag, I genuinely believe this game has garnered an unearned reputation for being ridiculously hard, when it reality all it requires is some patience.

I can see how this would be a massive shock to the system if you have never played any of their other games though.