A game with two totally different feels that I greatly appreciated. A fun rpg that never got to complicated and was full of whimsical environments, characters, and ideas that invoked a feeling of childhood wonder and longing for those days again. On the other side was a very dark story touching on complex feelings of guilt, suffering, and the feeling of losing touch with those you once held closest to you. There is a lot to take away from this game such as its really wonderful character work and emotional ending. I have conflicting opinions on the latter but it really showcases the high level of story telling and presentation regardless on what I would have changed.

The combat is better than ever and had some cool locations and set pieces (especially the final act), I don't love all the new weapons but it keeps things feeling fresh after quite a few entries in the series. There was also great enemy variety which was much appreciated after so many robot fights in 4.
I don't really feel like the open world sections added to the game at all other than cool moments riding the skiff through crazy storms. It felt mostly like just a way to pad out the game making you drive place to place.

The new cast of characters won me over a bit more in this game compared to Gears 4, I really like Kait and Del but still don't care for JD. The old guard is underused (minus Baird who was great as usual he was always my fav), but that didn't bother me. The story itself is pretty interesting even if I was confused at times, especially on some of the logistics but I decided to just not think too hard about it lol. Good character work though but gameplay and spectacle are the draw here.

I love stealth games but I almost never can find new ones to play, so booting up Aragami I was instantly enamored with it. Playing as a ninja you gain power hiding in the shadows, then you use that to teleport between shadows in order to sneak up on enemies or avoid them all together. The first few stages I had a lot of fun eliminating guards as I went, but for the last 2/3rd of the game I decided to go full stealth and try to sneak by everyone which was a great challenge.

The game does have it's issues, the maps can sometimes be a little confusing to navigate and the boss sections leave quite a bit to be desired, but ultimately I found to game to be very satisfying to play as a pure stealth experience.

As a big fan of the original Doom games this game was super up my alley. Taking place in and around a city overrun by Lovecraftian demons/possessions you run through tons of different environments fighting tons of enemies types with all sorts of weapons. The gameplay is just like old doom games, fighting enemies and looking for keys to open different colors doors to allow progression to the next stage. While a few of the stages were a bit confusing and a map would have been nice ultimately I found each level to be a lot of fun to explore. Having the stages set in so many different locations helped, going from farms to caves to cities to labs and so many more (the third and final episode had some especially cool locations I won’t spoil). This game is also very atmospheric, there were even a few times I jumped when something surprised me!

If you like horror and that classic Doom style shooter then this is definitely worth your time!

A throwback to the gamecube/ps2/xbox era of platformers, I had a good amount of fun with this one. Going in I was expecting a similar experience to Battle for Bikini Bottom but that was not like that at all. Instead of a collectathon this is essentially a linear 3d platformer, and a solid one at that. Gameplay is solid, it controls well and actually has a lot of combat which I didn't expect. It mixes it up a bit with minigames and things but for the most part it's a lot of jumping (woohoo!). There are some collectables and a hub world but they are very underutilized, you essentially are just going from point A to point B but that isn't necessarily a bad thing since it was fun almost the whole time.

Spongebob destroys reality by making wishes and has to rescue all his friends who are trapped in other realities. This leads to some fun creative levels like a karate movie set or cowboy world, then you get to see alt reality versions of some of the characters. The writing obviously isn't anything to write home about but there were a few moments I laughed at.

A cute game where you play as a dog with a grapple hook… badass! He can swing on certain objects which makes you feel a bit like spider-man zooming through levels finding collectibles and going through a good variety of obstacles and new mechanics.

Unfortunately to me there are a couple major issues with the game. The locking on for the grapple hook can be extremely spotty, so you often are trying to hook onto something small but it just won’t work for whatever reason. This isn’t a huge issue early on but when the game gets harder later it becomes a frustrating experience. It’s made worse by the fact you can tell grapple dog was meant to be grappling and wall jumping, cause the other simple platforming actions just don’t feel quite right, such as controlling where you are landing or trying to do some finely tuned platforming. A slow down in progression later in the game paired along with some annoying boss fights makes this game ultimately suffer as it gets further along, but luckily there is still some fun to be had.

Going into this game I was both excited and skeptical, the original Resident Evil 4 is one of my favorite games of all time and I played it to death growing up. Being the first horror game I ever played it will always hold a special place in my heart and I can still to this day remember most of the game in vivid detail. Could a remake/reimagining of this game hold up for me? Turns out the answer was a resounding yes.

I think this is everything a remake should be, it isn't a total 1 for 1 copy of the structure but it keeps almost every single iconic moment but plays around with the order and specifics to keep things fresh. You still have the iconic opening town fight with the chainsaw man, the fire in the burning barn, the claw wielding garradors, and so much more that kept me smiling and so impressed with the way everything was handled. There are even sections of the game, like the knife fight, where they took an iconic moment and made it better and more engaging.

The graphics and presentation are also key here, I don't think RE4 was ever a true scary game and I still don't here, but it is much more atmospheric and eerie than it was before. The settings are all amazing (the island is much improved in my opinion) and the monster designs really shine through. Story wise it isn't a whole lot different, it is a bit better fleshed out but it still is not the draw here. Some creepy and fun character keep things going but like other RE games it doesn't take itself too seriously. Ashley is much improved here though, she doesn't feel useless at all and she has her own moments to shine.

The biggest improvement is the gameplay for sure. I never minded the way the old game controlled (and I still don't) but I would be lying if I didn't say this felt immensely better. Being able to shoot while moving is obviously a game changer, but also the sprinting and movement is so much more fluid so you can easily navigate around the environments avoiding enemies while taking them out. Combat feels better than ever, you still are shooting enemies in key areas to bring up context takedowns, but they add new mechanics as well. Stealth is actually an option now which is a nice change of pace even if you don't get to use it a ton, but that is tied into the new knife mechanics. These are a lot of fun, allowing you to take out prone enemies or deal damage to enemies who grab hold of you. This was a great addition to the gameplay and felt totally natural.

All in all this was an amazing special game to me. It channeled everything I loved about the original game while still being it's own unique thing in many ways. I am not sure yet if it surpasses the nostalgia and love I have for the original but we will see where my feelings go when I inevitably replay it down the road.